The Kidnapped
by vampire-angel128
Summary: Max is falling in love with the football jock, Fang. So is Lissa, the redhead wonder, a cheerleader. Max is scared that her heart will be broken. She realises theres something fishy about her dad and Lissa and she is prepared to find out.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Turns out you shouldn't scare your best friend when she's asleep in English. JJ nearly impaled her pencil through my hand when I woke her up into wakefulness.

"Watch it," I hissed, barely avoiding my hand from being staked.

"Well don't wake me up that way," she said trying to stare me down.

"Then don't fall asleep during class," I said and turned around to look at my other best friend, Nudge when I saw that the hottest guy in school, Fang, was staring at me. I smiled shyly at him and he nodded to me and then went back to staring at me with his dark, mysterious onyx eyes.

I blushed and turned back around to JJ, who was looking at me with a big smile. I shook my head and gave her a warning look that said Don't-even-think-about-it-that-way.

She just gave me an even bigger smile and pulled out her phone and preceded to text who I assume was Nudge. I rolled my eyes and gave up, deciding that I would take a nap myself but before I could even close my eyes, my phone vibrated. God, if that's JJ I'm going to kill her, I thought to myself

I quickly looked up and saw that Mr Brian our science teacher had his back to us so I pulled out my phone and read the message.

_Max,_

_OMFG! The hottest guy in the school is frickin staring at you! I think he might have a little crush._

_Nudge._

I shook my head and gave her a glance. She was looking at me with her eyes wide open.

_You might know this but you're crazy and you look like a bug with your eyes like that._

_Max._

I sent back and sneaked a glance at Fang. He was still staring at me and he caught my eye and waved. I blushed again and quickly turned to face the black board where Mr Brian was explaining atom sizes and stuff with big long names. My phone vibrated again with a new message but I ignored it. Pulling it back out of my pocket meant facing Fang again and I couldn't do that.

"Nudge!" Mr Brian's voice whipped across the room like a whip.

"Yes sir," Nudges voice was timid and I looked over at her. She was sitting in her chair with worry stamped over her face.

"Can you please repeat what I just said?" he said staring her down.

"Um, well, you were talking about Atom sizes and what they were," she replied and smiled triumphantly.

"Can you explain for me what they are then?" he shot back and looked close to smiling himself.

"Uh-well-um they are things that are different, particles? And um, ah, they uh, group together to become a piece of energy or something like that?" she said stammering and shot a pleading glance over to JJ, who promptly ignored her. **(A/N I don't even know what atoms are so just pretend that they're that.)**

"Thank you and can please tell me why you weren't listening?" Mr Brian said seriously.

Nudge shrugged, "Coz I was texting about something _important_,"

"Ok that's enough smarty pants give me your phone and you can get it back at the end of the day," he said and held out his hand in which Nudge glumly placed her pink rhinestone phone in.

"Thank you, and can everyone please pay attention," he said shutting his hand with a snap and walking up to the blackboard again.

For the rest of the lesson I completely ignored my phone which was going off like crazy, Nudge who was trying to get my attention by hand signals and waving; the tingling in the back of my neck that I was getting because _someone_ was staring at me, and the blush that was creeping up my cheeks to form a rather large rose bloom.

When the bell rang I quickly stuffed my books into my bag and raced to the table in the cafeteria where Nudge and JJ and their boyfriends and I sit. It took them forever (5 minutes) to finally get their asses to connect with the seats.

"So Max, Nudge told me that you have a secret admirer," Iggy said, getting straight to the point.

"Shut the hell up Ig or you'll find that you would not only be blind but unable to speak," I said threateningly. Yeah, I like to use the threat to make him permanently blind again. He was blind when he was born but they gave him an operation in year 1 and he got his eyesight back.

"Oh touchy touchy, someone's in a bad mood," he grinned and pulled out his lunch.

"Yeah, so it's a good idea to not piss that someone off more," I said and glared at him.

"Well, I don't know what's so bad about having a secret admirer, I've always wanted one, and your even more lucky Max, it's the hottest dude on earth," Nudge said unrolling her salad wrap delicately with her pink manicured nails.

"Have you even met all of the guys on the earth?" I asked, staring across the room where Fang sat with his jock friends or as JJ and I like to say, Jerk friends. He must've felt my gaze when he turned around and I quickly dropped my eyes to Dylan, the dude sitting the table that was next to his.

"No but, c'mon, Fang is like, way hotter than Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp put together and you know what, he goes way past them in the hottie ladder," Nudge was saying.

"Why, why Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp?" I asked turning to her.

"Huh? Waddya mean Why Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp?" she said in puzzlement.

"I mean, why do you have to compare guys with Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp? Brad Pitt is married to a slut, and he's not even cute, Johnny Depp is old, do you even know how old he is, and he is like weird and freaky," I said, wishing that I could take that back instantly. (**A/N I don't actually think that Angelina Jolie is a slut but Max does)**

Nudge blew up like a puffer fish and launched a non-violent, very verbal attack.

"What the hell are you talking about? It doesn't mean anything that frickin Brad Pitt is old and that, that he's married to a slut and he is so cute, in fact he's even cuter than cute, he's almost hotter than hot, and Johnny Depp is _not_ freaky, and he's not that bloody old, if you had a better taste in men-wait, scratch that, if you even _had_ any taste in men- or even women in fact, you would take that back right this instant!" she exploded all in one short breath.

I waited until she got her breath back and calmly replied, "Done yet?"

She took a deep breath and looked at me and said, "Sorry, but, just, don't diss my boys ok?"

'Fine but first I have statement to say and promise on your favourite dress and wardrobe that you won't say anything, you won't comment or shout or do anything after I say it, well you can talk but not about what I've just said, ok?" I said and looked at her hesitant face.

"Fine," she agreed and everyone waited to see what I would say.

I took a deep breath, "It does mean something that Brad Pitt is married to a-"

A shadow fell over us and I quickly closed my mouth and looked up, kind of praying that it would be Fang, and kinda praying that it wouldn't be.

It wasn't him; it was my arch-enemy, Lissa, the cheerleader.

"Hello freaks, what were you saying at my husband Brad Pitt?" Lissa said all snobby.

"Oh, so he's your husband is he?" Nudge said said giving Lissa a once over.

"Yes he is why?" she replied sticking her nose up in the air.

"Huh, thts funny, coz I was just about to say that he is married to slut," I butted in with a smirk.

"Whatever," she said and looked down. I smiled smugly. _Checkmate bitch!_

" So what's on the menu today, salad wrap," she noted from Nudge, trying to get back to her normal self, instead of her face turning as red as radish, "Or-what in god's name is that?" she said pointing her chin in Gazzy's direction.

"It would be your face if you don't piss off," I said vehemently to her. Gazzy had his mum's favoured spaghetti out in a little blue Tupperware container.

Lissa took a step back and gave a look of pure hatred. My face became an emotionless mask but my eyes displayed not only hatred, but a very scary warning.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Fangs voice came out of nowhere.

"Oh nothing we were just having a little chat," Lissa said sweetly, tossing her red hair back from her shoulder.

"Um ok then," Fang said and gave her a smile. I rolled my eyes and turned back to see both Nudge and JJ staring at him with starry eyes and their mouths nearly hit the tabletops. Only Gazzy and Iggy looked unimpressed. I bit my lip when I saw Gazzy cast a jealous look at Fang, knowing instantly that it was because Nudge looked so into him.

"Hey you guys," Fang greeted putting his hand up with a wave and Nudge and JJ snapped from the reverie.

"Hi, Hey" JJ and Nudge said and they immediately both blushed. Thank god I'm not the only one that can blush really bad.

"Hey Max," he said smiling at me when I didn't say anything in return. I pretended to study Gazzy with and interest with a frown on my face to look like I was trying to work him out.

"Huh? Oh hi," I said shaking my head and giving Gazzy a _fake _look of puzzlement.

"So what's been happening Fang?" Lissa said trying to steal Fangs attention and fluttering her eyes like a bat.

"Nothing, me and the boys were just going out play a game of football when Dylan over here," Fang jerked his chin to his direction where Dylan was tossing the ball from one hand to another, "Noticed that there looked like a bit of a catfight starting,"

I looked up at Dylan to find him staring at me too. God! What is it with boys liking me today, I mean, it's not like I'm wearing any magic perfume or a boy attraction magnet.

"No, Max and I were just bonding," Lissa said with a glare over her shoulder that read say-anything-and-you-die.

I completely ignored it and muttered under my breath, "Yeah bonding with an argument about Brad Pitt,"

"What? You guys like Brad Pitt? He's married to hoe and he's not even cute," Fang said like a typical guy.

"Finally, someone who who actually agrees," I said and and turned to look at Nudge.

"See, people who have actual taste knows that Brad Pitt is soooo last minute," I said smugly.

She glared at me and muttered, "People who have actual taste will be saying the next minute that Michael Jackson is the hottest white/black guy in the whole frigging universe,"

"Oh c'mon, if people are people who have actual taste then the world would produce a lot more cuter babies don't ya think?" I replied and looked at her with a winning smile. She mumbled something unintelligent and glared at her salad wrap.

"You guys are seriously big freaks," Lissa said and motioned to her posse to follow her. "I'm sorry but we have business to attend to but I'm sure we'll talk again," she said and walked off with her butt twitching with every step.

"If she shakes her ass anymore she's gonna hit something and then complain that there's a big bruise on her left cheek," I said and shook my head.

The whole table was in hysterics and even Fang cracked a smile. Ok, it was a faint one but so what, it classified as a smile.

"Yeah um, we gotta go too now so we'll catch youse later," Dylan came up and pulled Fang away.

"See yas," Fang lifted up a hand and walked off. I sighed and my eyes followed him out of the door.

"Ahem," Iggy cleared his throat meaningfully and when I looked at him he was grinning from ear to ear. I sighed again but this time it was because I knew that he would say something like a smart ass comment.

"Save it," I said and pulled out my salad sandwich and ate in silence for about 4 minutes, thinking about Fang and what just happened before.

JJ was the first one to break the silence. "Soooo, Max, whatcha going do about it,"

"Huh? What am I going do about what?" I said confusedly.

"Don't play dumbass on us, whatcha going to do about Fang," she said and then sighed when my face was blank.

"I don't know, there's really nothing to about whatever you're talking about," I replied and looked down at the table where our names were written down. Bad idea. I felt a thud on my head and I looked up bewildered. "Hey, who did that?"

"Let us help you understand, you like Fang, Fang likes you, that add up to, boyfriend and girlfriend," Nudge cut in. 

I looked at the ground where I saw a tennis ball next to the chair leg. I looked back up and shrugged, "I don't know what you're on about,"

"Oh c'mon Max, every time he looks at you, ya blush, and you won't even look at him properly," Great, even Iggy is joining this conversation. I looked at Gazzy in desperation, trying to plead to him with my eyes to join the good side. He just shrugged and help up his hands like he had nothing to do with it. Fine, I guess a little blackmail is necessary.

"If youse guys aren't going to shut up about it all, well, Nudge, I'm going to tell your mum that you not only ripped her favourite evening gown but you tripped and broke her leopard high heels, JJ I'm going to tell Dean that you think he's car is in need of a new colour paint," I said knowing that Dean is very touchy touchy about his car, " Iggs, I'm working on it and Gazzy well, I'll inform Angel that you let Bugs Bunny out when you were drunk just to piss her off," I said and smirked to myself when I saw everyone bar Iggs face blanch.

"Fine, fine, but you have to promise that they will never know, so that means that you can't tell them and you can ever use them as blackmail ever again," Nudge said hurriedly.

"It's a deal," I nodded and finished my sandwich.

"So what are we going to now?" Gazzy said looking around us the cafeteria.

I looked at my watch, 1:30, "We have fifteen minutes left, oh, I know, how about we stage a break in to get Nudges phone outta Mr Brian's office?"

Everyone looked at each other doubtfully.

"Aw, c'mon guys, since when have we ever been caught doing it?" I exclaimed.

They sighed and nodded. I grinned and started scheming.

Fangs P.O.V (I'm being nice)

I couldn't stop thinking about Max. She's probably thinking I'm a major weirdo when she caught me staring at her like a billion times today, I thought to myself.

"Oi Nick! Hurry up and kick the bloody football!" Sam, my best mate yelled on the other side of the field.

I looked at the hard ball and lined it up towards the goals (**A/N this is Australian football since they live in Australia) **and kicked it. It sailed straight through the middle poles and rebounded off the fence.

"Wahoo! Yes, we won again, suck bananas Dylan!" Sam and the rest of the team came up clapped me on my back and shoulders but all I could think about was Max. Has she ever noticed me when I kick a goal? Has she ever been to one of my games?

"Keep it to yourself Sam, I challenge you to another 15 minute round this lunch," Dylan challenged and crossed his arms.

"That's all cool, but I warn ya, prepare for another ass kickin'," Sam grinned and we all took our places. My team took their places and I stood near the posts. Tom, our umpire, threw the ball up in the middle and everyone struggled to get hold of the ball. Finally Sam managed to grab it from Dylan and passed it Guy, who passed it along. When it was my turn I quickly passed it back to Sam and he kicked it but unfortunately it only went through the point.

We did that for the rest of the 15 minutes and by the time the bell went off, my mind was almost completely off of Max.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Max P.O.V

"Come on Nudge, seriously, you can stop hugging me now,' I said trying to wrestle out of Nudges embrace.

"Thank you thank you thank you," she squealed and finally let go and started dancing around the hall.

"Geez, it's like you got your first phone all over again," I rolled my eyes and remembered the memory.

She was 13 and she got it for her birthday from her mum and dad. She was ecstatic and she wouldn't stop texting everyone and she started dancing, until she tripped and fell into the pool.

"Whatever," Nudge waved away the comment and gasped.

"What? What is it? Did Brains scratch your screen?" JJ looked over Nudges shoulder and frowned.

"No, but I've got over 10 missed calls and 36 messages to reply too," Nudge frantically typed in her password and started replying.

"Well aren't you popular," I muttered and jumped when the bell rang.

Iggy raised an eyebrow but luckily for him, he didn't say anything. The hall started to be flooded with the rest of the student body so we quickly moved to the side to avoid being carried away or being knocked into by anyone.

"What do we have now?" JJ asked looking at me.

I shrugged, "I dunno, ask Nudge, she has her timetable on her phone," I jerked my head over to her.

"Hey nudge, what do we have?" JJ stood next to her and tapped her on her shoulder.

"Shoo, I'm busy," Nudge said not even looking away from her phone.

"Normally you would be finished by now," I commented and walked down to my locker, which unfortunately, was right next to Fangs.

"I've got 2 more messages to do and then I'll tell you," she said and walked to her locker, which was right across from mine.

I leaned against mine and waited for Nudge to finish so that she could tell us so I could get my book out.

"Hey Max," Fang walked up to next to me and opened his locker.

"Uh hi," I replied and tapped my foot impatiently.

"It's not like we're waiting for you or anything Nudge," I said sarcastically.

"Hang on," she said absently and help up a finger.

I groaned and turned to open my locker. Fang was smiling amusingly and I gave him the bird.

"Seems like your friend over there is in love her phone," Fang commented and leaned on his side to look at me.

"Yeah, well she basically sleeps with it so you can call it her other half," I replied and cracked a smile myself, which was, by the way, completely un-involuntary.

"She has a name thank you," Nudge marched up to us and gave us a look," What am I? The cat's mother?"

"Sorry, but you looked so into your phone, you know," Fang replied and gave her a smile, which melted her angry stare into a flirtatious look.

"Well, it's alright, most of us act like our gender," Nudge said and gave a pointed look at me which I promptly ignored.

"So what do we have?" I asked and grabbed my bag.

"Music," Nudge replied and ran quickly back to the other side of the corridor and pulled at her bag as well.

"Oh great," JJ groaned and got out her books.

"What's wrong with music?" Fang asked.

"Did you bring your assignment in today?" she asked pointedly.

"Awww maaaaan," I groaned and thumped my head against the locker.

"Uh huh, that's what I thought," JJ nodded and closed her eyes.

"I thought it was due on Thursday," Fang said and shook his bangs out of his eyes. My heart gave a little flutter, he just looked so damn gorgeous when he does that, so boyish.

"So did I," I bit my lip and looked at Nudge who happened to look so smug.

"Well, I thought that since I finished it a week before this week, I'd bring it in in case times like this happen," she smiled with a smirk.

"You knew didn't you,' I said realization dawning on me. "You knew that it was due today but you didn't tell us," I said taking a step towards her while she took a step back.

"I-I forgot, until I got into to school and it was into the car and I knew you wouldn't be able to get yours so I decided not to stress you out," she stammered, walking into the ocean of people.

"But we would've already stressed out when we got there," JJ joined me and we took menacing steps towards her.

Luckily for her though, Gazzy and Iggy arrived to save her day.

"You, what's going on here,' Iggy asked, trying to act cool.

"Don't try to act cool, just face it, you're not," I sneered and spun on my heel and walked towards the music room with JJ and Fang hot on my heels.

"Ooooh, are we in a mood today," Iggy huffed and crossed his arms.

I ignored him and Fang and JJ joined my side.

"If you don't mind me asking but since when did you ever care about handing in assignments on time, I mean, you're the rebel of the class," Fang asked carefully making sure he wasn't in my hitting range.

"Ever since her mum and dad told her that she can move out if she gets an A+ in her half yearly report," JJ announced and I gave her a death glare.

"JJ!" I gasped and punched her.

"Ooops sorry, 'she said sounding sincere but I knew it was fake. That girl can lie as bad as I can.

"Seriously?" Fang asked sounding surprised.

"Yeah I suppose," I replied and walked into the classroom. You can imagine the surprised looks everyone gave us when they took in JJ, me and Fang together, as well as the pissed off look that came from Lissa and her posse. The whole class went quite and then everyone started whispering about whether me and Fang we're going out, or was it JJ and Fang. Slowly the noise built to its normal level of conversation and I rolled my eyes.

"Huh, I just thought that you would want to live with your parents, you know, spend as much time with your dad and mum," Fang said sounding a little sad.

"Nah, not me," I replied shortly and felt a pang of sadness myself when I thought of my family. I slid into a table and JJ sat beside me. Fang, much to my surprise, sat on my other side. I gave him a look of puzzlement and he grinned and turned to face me, giving me a good view of his hotness. Just shook my head and looked out of the window for Mrs Wendy. No show.

'What is it with teachers and not showing up on time,' JJ said, turning to both of us.

I shrugged," I don't know but they're hypocrites,"

"How?" Fang asked and looked towards the door.

"Well, you know how they tell us that we have to be on time for class," I started explaining and they both nodded, "Well, when we're in class on time, they're 15 minutes late, doing god know what,"

"That's true,' JJ put her head to the side.

"Very good argument," Fang nodded and I blushed. He smiled at me again and I bent my head down. Thank god Mrs Wendy decided to show up just then, with Nudge right behind her. Nudge glance beside me and her eyes widened when she saw Fang. She quickly sat down behind me and I could basically feel her gaze on the back of my head.

"Hello children," Mrs Wendy breezed in and smiled when we started yelling out that we weren't children.

"Your children to me, did anyone remember to bring their projects in today," she asked and looked around expectantly.

I half thought that Nudge would've said yes but to my surprise she kept quiet.

Mrs Wendy sighed, "Fine, we will schedule it to Thursday then, today will be a free period because I didn't have any work for you because I thought that we would spend this period on projects, you may do whatever you want but nothing very very loud ok,"

Immediately everyone cheered and we broke away in our own groups.

"Omg, you would never guess who was checking you out JJ," Nudge gushed as soon as we jammed between to bookshelves which had a curtain to cove the doorway.

"Please I don't care, I'm not quite sure that I wont to date just right now, especially so soon after the Colin incident," JJ closed her eyes and leaned her head against a bookshelf.

'Why, what happened" Fang asked.

Nudge and JJ looked at me and I started to explain.

"There was this total douche bag that lives across the road from JJ and his name was Colin, him and JJ started getting a friendly, and then a little too friendly and then they officially started going out, well, I threatened him that if he even hurt JJ or touched her the wrong way or treated her the wrong way I would smash his face through a wall,"

"Which is something she is definitely capable of doing," Nudge cut in.

"Yeah um, well the relationship lasted two weeks, before he got violent with her and started hitting her and smashing her in the face, one day I came back from my Nudges house to JJ's house I found her trying to hide her face from me, while her dad was shouting at Colin. I um, kinda lost it for a minute and gave him a black eye before her dad pulled me off of him," I explained.

"Huh," was all Fang said.

"Pretty impressive ay," Nudge said proudly while grinning.

"Yeah," Fang gulped.

JJ smiled and put her arm around me shoulders, which made me stiffen but then gradually relax, "You should have seen the look on Colin's face when Max grabbed him, it was priceless!" she chortled.

"Yeah, the look of sheer horror dawning on his pretty face was enough for anyone to take a picture and place on face book for everyone to look and laugh at," Nudge agreed.

"Like I said, Priceless," JJ repeated.

"Soooo, Fang, tell us about your family," Nudge asked after 2 minutes of quiet chuckling.

"There's really nothing to tell, my mum and dad split up when I was eight, I'm the only child and me and my dad aren't on the best of terms," he said shortly and looked sad.

"You have daddy issues too?" I asked surprised.

"Mmm, yeah, what's wrong with your dad?" he replied, focusing his attention to me.

"Ah well, nothing really, I mean, that's just it, there's nothing wrong with him because I never really see him," I answered and leaned back against the wall and looked around to see that Lissa and her posse were heading towards us. "Hags from hell, twelve o'clock," I warned.

"Whaa-?" Fang turned along with Nudge and JJ to see Lissa.

"Great, what does she want?" JJ groaned.

"Fang, duh," Nudge said sarcastically and laughed when she saw a look of horror on his face, "Just joking, but she probably does," she reassured him. Kind of.

"Well isn't it the nerd herd," Lissa greeted walking up and leaning against a bookshelf with her elbow.

"Well isn't it the Hag bitch from hell," I greeted back coldly.

She snorted and shook her hair back, "Whatever Maximum,"

I rolled my eyes, "Ouch, that hurt, you called me my name," I said sarcastically.

She frowned and was about to say something when Nudge cut in," We are actually the opposite of nerds ok, if anything, you're the queen of nerds, sucking up to the teachers and becoming teacher's pet,"

"Whatever," she said and smiled at Fang, "Hey Fang,"

"Hi," he replied and looked at me in confusion.

I shrugged, "Soooo, Lissa can I ask you a question?"

"I suppose," she said.

"Did your mum shrink your skirt in the washing machine or did you just buy two sizes smaller than your average size?" I asked looking her up and down. She had on a pink blouse and a really mini denim skirt with probably nothing underneath it. I mean, _probably nothing underneath it._

"No!" she said hurriedly. She looked so offended. Which was what I was aiming to achieve?

"Huh, I would've thought the latter," I said and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Whatever," she huffed and stamped away.

"Is it just me or does Lissa always stamps off whenever she doesn't get the last say," I commented while turning back to my friends.

"No, it's not just you," Nudge replied.

All of us stared at Lissa's retreating back and shook our heads.

"I always knew she was a skank but I never thought that she'd stoop that low," Fang said sounding un-impressed.

"That's Lissa for you,' JJ muttered and looked at her phone. "Nudge, who did you say was checking me out?"

"Huh? Whaa, oh, yeah, ummm, you would never guess," Nudge said sounding distracted.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" JJ said snorting. I drew in a deep breath when I figured out who it was.

"Just guess!" Nudge said and finally payed attention to the actual topic.

"There are fifteen guys in the class and you want me to say every one of them?" JJ said disbelievingly.

"Oh for the love of god!" I threw up my hands and shook my head in aspiration. Nudge can seriously kill us with keeping secrets, and JJ ca kill us by being so clueless. I must admit when I first figured it out, I felt like throwing up.

"That's funny, I never knew that you believed in god," Fang smirked.

"If believing in god gives me a smarter best friend, then I will love him," I shot back and gave him the bird.

"How come you found out who ever like me, before I can?" JJ said pathetically.

"Because I have brains," I replied and rolled my eyes dopily.

"Humph," was all JJ's reply.

"Come on, it's easy, he always stares at you," Nudge was basically jumping up and down on her heels by now.

"Nudge, a lot of boys stare at me, they can't help it, my beauty is just too irresistible for them," JJ joked and tossed back her hair and gave us a winning smile.

"Yeah, keep dreaming," I muttered loudly on purpose.

"Whatever," JJ said snobby.

"Keep going and your gonna start sounding like Lissa," Fang warned, which immediately made her shut her mouth.

I smiled; the worst thing that could ever happen to you is being a second Lissa.

"Stop being so mean you guys, c'mon seriously, she's gotta figure out who the guy is," Nudge punched Fang and I, which she took a big risk on punching him because she doesn't know if he would punch her back, but harder. Luckily though, for hr, he didn't even notice. Unluckily for me though, he went back to staring at me, completely ignoring the rest of the conversation. Seriously, he and his mood shifts are giving me whip lash.

"Is it Sam?" JJ guessed randomly.

"No, but he stares at you a lot," Nudge said and smiled.

"Ummm, really random guess but um, I can't believe I'm goin to say this but, Ari?" JJ guessed while pretending to gag, which I knew she was faking.

"YES!" Nudge clapped her hands and bounced up and down while still sitting, which looked hard to me.

"Ewwww, my brother is in looooove with you," I said and grinned at her when she gave me a sour look.

"Shut up," JJ said and looked around.

"speaking if the devil," I mumbled, after looking up and noticing Ari lumbering towards us with his big, scary pack of ugly cross cute guys.

"Who's the devil?" Ari grinned when he got to me, while messing up Nudges hair, "Hey Nudgey Pudgey,"

"Hey, Gerrr off," Nudge tried to wrestle away from Ari's jumbo sized hand.

"You are stupid," I replied and rolled my eyes when he got a hurt expression on his face.

"Thanks, my feelings are permanently hurt," he said sticking out his bottom lip.

"Good,' I smiled satisfied that I got at least one hit in before he tried to vocally bash me.

"Weirdo," he muttered before turning around and giving JJ a dazzling smile," hey Jennifer-Joy,"

"Uh, hi Ari," JJ stuttered like a moron.

"Whatcha doing today after school?" he asked still giving her a smile and completely ignoring the rest of us.

"Umm, well, I'm gonna go home like usual," she said, with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I would've kinda felt sorry for her if I wasn't trying to stifle my laughter.

"So you're not going our house today?" he asked trying to act nonchalant.

"Uh, no why?" she asked. She must be the most confused girl in the world at the moment.

"Why don't you come over to our house and hang out with me. I mean, Max!" He said but his eyes grew wide when he realized that he had said for her to hang out with him.

"Huh, real smooth Ari, real smooth," I snorted and looked up at him.

"What's your problem Max?" he gave me an evil glare.

"Nothin man, just weirded out at the fact that you're hitting on one of my best friends," I replied and gave him a death look that put his evil glare to shame.

"I'm not hitting on JJ, I'm just being friendly!" he said sounding offended.

"Yeah, um, friendly and you don't mix," I said sarcastically rolling my eyes at his feeble attempts to sound like his was up to nothing.

"Just like you?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Dude, you want me to be friendly? Because this is as friendly as I can get," I said sweetly but vehemently.

"Listen um, I can't go over with max, I've gotta go home and get ready for baseball practice sorry," JJ quickly cut in before Ari and I started passing bad words and fists to each other.

"Oh, well how 'bout tomorrow?" Ari instantly deflated and turned into a charming young man.

"Yeah, maybe," JJ said trying to restrain herself from bursting out in laughter.

"Cool!" Ari smiled with such a huge grin that i was half surprised that his lips didn't split in half. he shot me an evil glance and turned away with his friends, Bobby, Harley and some new 'recruits'.

"Uh, what was that about?" JJ asked when Ari was out of earshot.

"Oooohhhh, JJ! Ari is in looooove with yoooouuuu!' Nudge sang out, clearly happy for some weird reason. I don't have any idea why she had the complete opposite reaction to what JJ, Fang and I have.

"Is that something I should be happy about?" JJ asked like she obviously had no clue what she should feel.

"C'mon JJ, you need to get out there and date,nits been soooo long since you've even gone and sat next to a random dude thats hot!" Nudge said, all cherry.

"Uh, excuse me, are you saying that just because I haven't dated anyone for the last two weeks is equivalent to enternity for you?" JJ replied crossing her arms.

"Why does _my_ brother like _you_?" I said without thinking.

"Whats wrong with me?" JJ said ignately.

"No! I didn't mean it like that! I meant why does my donkey-ass brother like my awesome times 20 best friend, who is clearly too good fro him." I replied hastily.

"Anyone is clearly too good for him," Fang snorted and we all laughed.

"Im guessing that I'm the awesome times 30 best friend?" nudge said.

"Hmmmm, no, your the same as JJ," I replied and smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The rest of the day went ok. Me and Fang sat next to each other in every class and I could say that we have developed a rather special relationship by the end of the day.

"C-ya!" I called out and waved at Fang who was crossing the road with his friends.

"Bye!" he called back and his friends all wolf whistled at both of us.

Fang chucked a punch at Dylan, who was the closest to him and I blushed and turned around to where I found JJ and Nudge smiling at me.

"Soooo Max," Nudge started while both she and JJ looped their arms through mine and we started walking down the street.

"Yeah," I asked starting to get nervous because I knew what they would start yammering away about. What the hell? Me? Nervous? About the topic that included Fang? I know. Unimaginable! But today is just full of new surprises.

_It certainly is Maximum._ A voice appeared out of nowhere in my brain. At first I thought that I had imagined it.

Huh? God? Is that you? I thought. I was soooo surprised. No answer.

Um, are you the guy upstairs? I asked mentally but felt stupid straight away.

_Quite literally, _it answered. Whatever _it_ was.

_Actually, no, but if you want you can call me Jesus. _The voice answered much to my never ending surprise.

Uh, if you don't mind, can I ask who you are and where you are? I asked suddenly feeling weird.

_You may call me...anything as long as it isn't rude, and I am in your mind. _ It said.

Ok then, well, I'm gonna call you Voice. And...WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY 'YOU ARE IN MY MIND'! I screamed really loudly and hysterically.

No answer. I waited some more but there was silence. I'm lucky that in my mind that it is silent. With everything that's been going on today, I'm actually quite calm.

"Yo! Earth to Max!" Nudge was waving her hand in front of my face.

"Uh, hang on what?" I said stupidly, snapping out of my reverie.

"Dude, you were just standing there looking like a mummy, walking, breathing, blinking but not talking. Creepy if you ask me." JJ informed me.

"Oh yeah. Sorry, guess I got a little distracted." I shrugged sheepishly.

"Just a little," Nudge repeated with a disbelieving look on her face.

"Yeah," I said trying to act unconcerned.

"So what were you thinking of?" JJ asked.

"I was talking to a voice inside of my head,' I answered without thinking but shut my mouth as soon as I realized my mistake.

_Way to go Maximum. _ Voice reappeared out of nowhere.

"OK then,' Nudge gave me the Psycho-Girl look.

"Hahaha, tricked yas," I laughed feebly, trying to cover my mistake.

"Right," JJ said slowly and we spent the rest of the day walking home.

When we got to the 'Split Streets' which were where all three of us go to the three different streets next to each other where our houses are, we all said quiet goodbyes and for the rest of the 15 metre walk to my house, I was mentally cursing Voice, hoping that he/she/it could hear me.

I got no answer so I'm guessing he/she/it didn't or just ignored it.

"Hey hon." my mum, Dr. Valencia Martinez, called out as soon as I walked through the door.

A smell of choc chip cookies wafted through the air and I bolted towards the source, the Kitchen.

I found my sister, Ella, sitting on the bench eyeing the tray of cookies, which mum had just pulled open the oven to get them out.

"How was your day honey" Mum asked just like every other day.

"Good," I answered, practically drooling after five, very long, very painful seconds of smelling the aroma.

"That's good, alright then girls, dig in, but rememb-"Mum was cut short by the huge racket me and Ella were making to see who would get the most cookies.

It only took twenty seconds and by the end of it I had six cookies and Ella had four.

"I was going to say leave some for your father, but never mind,' Mum sighed and shook her head.

"What father?" I asked, not even pretending to be a smart-ass.

"Don't be stupid, you see your father very now and then," Mum frowned.

"Mum, I'm sorry to inform you, but have you ever noticed 'Dad' is never around when ever humans are up and about?" I said

"Ooooh, maybe he's a vampire and he sleeps in a coffin during the day,' Ella sighed dramatically and waved her hands around.

"May be," I joked.

"C'mon girls, he just works a lot, he's the reason why-"Mum said.

"He's the reason why we live in a big, cool house, and go to a big cool school, yeah mum, we heard it the first time around, but it wouldn't kill him to spend just a teensy weensy bit more time with us, even for five minutes," I cut in and pushed Ella away from my cookies.

Mum said something but I tuned out, like I normally did when Mum was talking about my 'dad'

"Hey no fair, you got two more cookies than me!' Ella said while grabbing thin air where my hand filled cookies were.

I grinned, "Suck shit," I teased.

"Grrr," Ella just said and stormed out of the kitchen. I just watched her go and turned back towards mum with my eyebrows raised as if to ask what I had done wrong. Apparently everything. Mum just shook my head. I just shrugged and munched on my cookies and trudged into my room and plugged my earphones in and played check Yes Juliet by We the Kings.

Fangs P.O.V

"Ooooohhhhhhh," Sam and Dylan were making kissy kissy faces at me.

"Sam, Dylan, you look like sucker fishes, maybe you should suck each other's faces off," I said and punched them in their arms.

"Youch!" Dylan yelped like a dog.

"That hurt," Sam said rubbing his arm and looking like a hurt animal.

"Good," I said and smiled.

"Your evil, Fang, your really evil," Dylan said shaking his head.

I said nothing and we three guys separated from the others. We all live in the same street, (well, kinda, my mum lives on the same street) all two doors down from each other.

"Soooo Fang, do you like Max or what," Sam asked.

I groaned. Knowing Sam, he would go straight to a topic that he knew that I wouldn't want.

"No, of course not. We're just hanging out," I said trying to sound truthful.

"_Just hanging out?_" Dylan repeated with a smirk on his face.

"Yes, just hanging out," I replied and gave him the bird.

"That is total bull," he said with one eyebrow up.

I kicked at a loose stone that was in my way and looked down. There's been no way in hell that I was going to tell these two douche bags about Max. I mean, they just wouldn't get it. She's smart, funny, pretty, everything that I've ever dreamed about. She made me feel normal. She wasn't from a posh, stuck up family that thinks that since they have money, they can be controlling bitches to everyone. She was a regular girl from a regular family. My favourite type. Great. Now I was describing her like I am describing my fav icy pole.

"Your face is total bull," I muttered and received an unexpected punch from both him and Sam.

"Hey!" I said surprisingly.

"Don't say that!" he said loudly.

"Just telling it how I see it," I replied snarkily.

"Whatever," he said and waved to both me and Sam, he had reached the gate to his house.

"See ya," Sam and I yelled out and waved.

"Bye," he replied.

Me and Sam walked and joked around but the topic on max was completely abandoned.

"Hey Mum!" I yelled out when I walked into the house.

"Whaa-?" my mum walked out bleary eyed out of her office.

"Sorry, are you still working on that book?" I asked sort of weirded out by the fact that she considers her book her new boyfriend. Which is what she said to me last night during when she had called me.

"Yes," she said shortly. I think she was a bit mad because I was interrupting her calming mind.

"Sorry, I'm gonna go out then, give you some more peace and quiet time," I said holding up my hands and smiling cheekily while backing away.

"That'll be nice," she said and walked away without even appreciating my joke.

I shrugged to myself and dumped my bag on the ground, where it made a loud heavy thump.

"Hang on, what are you doing here? I mean it's not like you live here," Mum said popping back out of her office without any emotion.

"Just thought that it wouldn't be harmless to spend some time with my mother that I don't see very often, but if you want I could come over later," I said shrugging again.

"What," mum said again like she couldn't understand what I was saying.

"I said, I could come over later, or tomorrow, or the next day, or net week, or in a month, or in ten years?" I said harshly. I was getting pissed. Last night she was ringing up saying how much she missed me and how much she wanted to spend time with me, and now she wants me to go! Some love.

"No, but-" she said but I cut her off.

"Listen, I'm sorry that I listened last night when you were affectionate, just forget that I even came over today, I mean, it's not any different to every other time I come over!" I said and grabbed my bag and stormed out of the house.

Black thoughts followed me out and all I could think was I wonder if max has to go through this all the time. If she doesn't, she's really lucky. To be average.

Max P.O.V

I felt my phone vibrate through my back pocket of my jeans. I quickly pulled my phone out, thinking that it was a call. I was wrong. It was Nudge.

Hey Max, Can you come to the mall with me please. JJ bailed and no-one else will come. It's like they're avoiding me or something. So please come, pretty please. Nudge

I rolled my eyes and grinned. Lucky them. I thought for a moment. Well, since the hottest hunk in the school is taking notice of me, maybe I'll try to act more like a girl.

I unplugged my earphones out of my ears and got up from the bed and walked to my wardrobe. I opened the doors and saw that most of my outfits were in black, black and...black. No! Wait! There's a dark purple jumper behind my skinny jeans.

I need to update my wardrobe; I thought to myself and nodded.

Nudge, Yeah I'll come. I need to buy some new clothes anyway. Meet in front of sport girl in 10? Max

I replied and it was only a matter of seconds when Nudge replied.

Koolies. Nudge.

I arrived at the mall with just a few minutes to spare. Of course Nudge was there, probably because she arrived 5 minutes earlier.

"Hey!" she bounced up to me.

I eyed the bags in her hands. She has already started shopping. What the hell?

"Uh, hi, did I like, arrive late or something?" I said motioning towards the bags.

"No, I just saw these really sexy outfits and they were on sale, you wouldn't believe it! Half-Price! And everyone was like, OMG! And I was like I have got to have them so I bought them before anyone else could," she said her hands flapping wildly with excitement.

"O-o-kk," I said, "Not weird at all,"

"C'mon, I found this really cute outfit for you, you have to see it," she said grabbing my hand and dragging me down to the other side of the mall.

We halted at the front of Roger David's, where Nudge grabbed a short, emerald green dress. Emphasis on the short bit.

"Uh, isn't it a bit short?" I asked not really sure that I wanted to wear it.

I mean, yeah, I wanted to change, but not into a slut.

"No! It's the right length," Nudge said shaking her head.

"I don't know..." I looked at it. It was beautiful, but I think the dress maker accidently cut the bottom too much.

"It would look perfect on you, it's basically made for you," Nudge persisted.

I stared at it. She was right. It probably would like great on me, but I just didn't want to look like a ho.

"Awww c'mon Max, be a girl," she whined.

"I sighed, "Fine, I'll buy it, but don't ever expect me to wear it anywhere in public;" I snatched it off of her and bought it.

We did more shopping, running up and down the mall, choosing stupid outfits that were either too short, showing too much of your legs, or showing too much of your cleavage. But apparently, the shorter the better for Nudge. Honestly, how that girl doesn't flash to anyone, I have no clue.

"Ahhh, that's was fun," Nudge said sighing happily and contently.

"Yeah," I said and sat down on a bench and dumped my pile of bags that contained ridiculous dresses and jumpers and skinny jeans a long with heels and sneakers.

"OMG! Look at them heels! We have to get a pair each!" Nudge sat down but jumped up before her ass even got to touch the seat.

"Huh? Where?" I said looking around but not even wanting to buy anymore stupid crap.

"Right there! I can't believe we didn't even notice them!" Nudge raced across to a store that couldn't even be bothered to look at its name, and bought two pairs of black, shiny, high, high, heels.

"Uh, I am never gonna where them," I said staring at them with wide eyes.

"What? Why not?" she said sounding offended.

"They're a hazard to my safety," I said trying to sound less boyish.

"That is the biggest bull I've ever heard," Nudge shook her head and stuffed her pair and my pair into our bags.

I just shrugged and leant back and crossed my arms under my head and closed my eyes, basking in the golden sunlight.

"I need to go to the loo, I'll be back," Nudge said and shot off to the toilets.

I stayed put until I felt a shadow in front of me. I slowly opened my eyes, one by one and what I saw before made me sit up so fast that I was surprised I didn't get dizzy.

"Uh, Fang, hi," I said stunned.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Nothing, just shopping with Nudge," I said and bit my lip while studying him. His eyes looked red like he had been crying and his hair was tussled with great carelessness.

"Hey what's wrong?" I asked sounding concerned.

"Nothing," he said shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't believe that," I said and patted the bench down beside me, "Sit down and tell me,"

His face lighted up a little bit and I felt good. Maybe everything that JJ and Nudge said about Fang liking me was true.

"Thanks," he said and sat down with his skate board on the ground.

"KK, spill, what's wrong," I said firmly.

"Nothing really, family issues," he shrugged and look around.

"Like, Mummy issues, Daddy issues or sibling issues?" I asked actually concerned for once.

"Mum and Dad issues," he said.

I was actually surprised he was actually talking to me.

"What's wrong with them?" I asked scooting closer.

"Nothing, that's the problem, because I don't see them that much,' he said and shrugged again.

"Oh, like your parents go to work and stay there for so long and young don't get to see them?" I nodded in understanding.

'Yeah, basically, if you wanna put it that way," he said, and looked off into the distance.

"Hey, did you know-"Nudge bounded up towards us but stopped abruptly when she noticed Fang and I were sitting really close.

I coughed and the tips of my ears became red.

"Hey Nudge," Fang said and smiled an upside down smile.

"Hey," Nudge said and just stared like he was the greatest thing in the world.

"So Nudge, what were you saying?" I said trying to ease of the awkwardness.

"Um, nothing, never mind," she said and shook her head like she was clearing water out of her ears.

"Right," I said and we all sat/stood awkwardly.

"Um, you know, Max, I saw this really cute dress-"Nudge began, finally deciding to change subject.

"I don't want it,' I cut in but immediately earned a death glare from her.

"How do you know you don't want it if you haven't even seen it?" she challenged.

"Because I know when you say that there's a really cute dress you mean a really short dress," I said and settled back into the chair again.

Fang just sat there, looking almost amused.

"Fine, well if you're not going to get it, I will," she huffed and stormed off.

I just shook my head. "How that girl doesn't get tired of shopping is beyond me," I muttered and Fang chuckled. Yes! He actually laughed. I cracked a grin, feeling triumphant until he opened his mouth.

"You know Max, you're a really great girl," he started.

"Thanks, glad someone thinks that," I said. I was kinda getting nervous.

"And any guy that gets you has to understand that your special," he said, ignoring the little cut in from my part.

Hang on. Hold the show. Pause. I gotta write a couple of letters. Ok.

Dear Butterflies,

I appreciate you wanting to hang out in my stomach, but really, this isn't the time for you to start fluttering you wings and moving around. If you could, could you go to sleep?

Yours Sincerely,

Max Ride.

And...

Dear Fang,

Did you take lessons on how to make a girl nervous? Because if you didn't, well, damn boy! You really know how to! Just take a break will you though, I don't like getting nervous.

Max.

Ok. Unpause.

"Yeah..." I said slowly.

"This is hard for me to say this, because you know, I'm scared," Fang said.

"I don't know what ya scared of though," I shrugged.

"Ok," Fang took in a deep breath.

"Max. Will you go out with me?" he blurted out.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey Guys! **

**Sorry about me not updating my stories but things are kinda getting packed at my house. Family can get quite annoying sometimes ya know.**

**So hopefully I'll be updating more quickly and everything.**

**And I just want to say thanks to everyone that has been reviewing! I definitely owe youse one!**

Chapter 4

"Max. Will you go out with me?" he blurted out.

I sat there in stunned silence. I couldn't believe it! Fang asked me out! Me! Oh god, he must be so embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, that kinda came out un-expected, uh," Fang said sheepishly after I had said nothing for several long seconds.

"What? Oh, uh, well, um..." I stammered. God! I'm like a broke wreck.

"Listen, it's alright if you don't want to go out with me, I could understand...after you tell me why," he said and smiled nervously.

"Who do you want to go out with you?" Nudge said skipping back up to us.

"Great timing Nudge, really," I muttered under my breath.

"Uh, um, I asked Max out and she, um, hasn't replied," Fang explained. I swear I saw a hint of red in his cheeks. Well thank god; I'm not the only one blushing like hell here.

"Oh! Yeah, she'll go out with you," Nudge said without looking at me.

"WHAT!" I stood up and glared at her.

"What?" she said acting like it wasn't a big deal.

"What's with you two and the word what?" Fang asked. I was kinda glad that he changed the subject, but of course, Nudge being Nudge, went straight down the road of love.

"I just told him the answer that he wants to hear and what you want to say," Nudge said with a grin playing on her face.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that, but I didn't hear you ask me how I feel about him, I mean, I could think he's like my brother, and do you know how gross it would be if my best friend said yes to my 'brother' because he asked me out?" I was practically losing it now.

"Um, no, I wouldn't know how gross it would be, but I _do_ know you don't think of him as your 'brother', because if one brother isn't enough to handle, than why would you want a second one?" Nudge said.

I just shook my head and closed my eyes.

"Uh, I'm gonna go," Fang said warily, "Sorry if I embarrassed you, I guess I'll see you two at school," he waved and turned around.

Oh Man! He must be soooo sad, even sadder than he was, so guess what, I did the unthinkable. Gave Nudge the pleasure of being right.

"Wait! Fang!" I shouted out before he could go anywhere far away. He turned around and I drew in a deep breath.

"I, um, I like you too," I said and felt an immediate blush creep up my cheeks.

"Really?" he asked his face lighting up with hopefulness.

"Yeah, so um, it would be awesome if we like, got together," I said. I can't believe it, I'm actually saying yes to him.

"Yeah, it would," Fang said and walked away with his skateboard in his hands.

I blinked. What the hell! Did that just mean that we were dating? Or was he simply just stating that he agreed with me? Questions, so many questions, especially when it's about Fang.

"OHMYGOODNESS! YOU'RE GOING OUT WITH FANG!" Nudge squealed, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Uh, I'm not quite sure I am, he didn't say that we are going out," I said and shook my head. Great, another thing Nudge can go on and on about for the next four years.

"So? It was close enough!" she said and frowned, "Do you reckon Lissa would be jealous?"

"From the vibe that I got today, yeah," I replied.

"Yes! Looking at the scoreboard right now, Lissa-zilch, Max-1!" Nudge jumped up and down happily.

"You just want to fight her don't you?" I asked and grinned, "Wait, don't answer that. Everyone does!"

We both laughed and high-fived each other.

"So do you reckon we've got enough clothes to last us a few years?" I asked sarcastically while looking at the giant, bulging bags that we were holding.

"They would last you a few years, but these won't even last me a whole month!' Nudge stated and we walked happily out the mall, making fools outta ourselves.

As I chucked the last of the newly bought clothes into the growing heap in my wardrobe floor, I thought about the events of today.

First it started with Fang staring at me, then Fang staring at me again, and then Fang talking to me, well, after that there was the Fang hanging out with me. Basically it spelt out with Fang. Then to top it all off, Fang asked me out! Am I missing anything else? Oh yeah, the Voice decided that it would show itself. At least I think it was a Voice. I might have imagined it.

Oh God, what if I did! What if I was just talking to myself? And they say the first sign of craziness if talking to yourself! Oh No! What if I'm going crazy! I thought to myself. I couldn't take it any longer.

I ran downstairs and into the kitchen where mum was probably cooking dinner, and was about to shout out if I was crazy when i heard the doorbell ring and saw my dad, Jeb, walking into the door.

I stopped in my tracks and was almost knocked over by Ella, who was rushing down the stairs yelling ,"I'll get it!" which meant that she thought it was her new boyfriend, someone a rather. But then when she saw Jeb, her eyes basically popped out of her face.

I'm sure my mouth was touching the ground because I so surprised.

"Hey Max, Ella," he greeted and shut the door.

"Uh, what are you doing here?" I asked not meaning to sound rude or anything. I think.

"For you information, I live here," he said and took off his jacket and hung it up on the coat rack.

"Not really, we kinda thought that you ate and slept at your work, which if memory serves, was more important than family occasions," Ella said and stomped off into the kitchen, probably to confront Mum about our little situation.

"Ah, my little girls grown up," Jeb said wistfully shaking his head and staring after Ella.

"Keep it to you," I said disgustedly and walked off into the lounge room and turned on the TV with the remote.

"You know, I thought that you guys would be happy to see me, because you know," Jeb said following me into the room and dumping his briefcase on an empty chair.

"No, actually I don't know, I don't know anything about you because I don't talk to you, I don't see you and I don't want be happy to see you for obvious reasons, you know," I said and went into the kitchen, where I saw Ella giving Mums back the bird.

"Yo Mum, have you heard about our guest?" I asked sarcastically.

Mum sighed and turned away from the oven where she was checking if the chicken was ready. "Yes, in fact I have, rather loudly actually, and think I might be temporarily deaf for the rest of the day,"

"Oh, well, I wish I was you, plus I'd add in the blind bit from Iggy," I said and turned to Ella, who was grinning.

"Yeah, same," she agreed.

"Why would you want to be deaf and blind?" Jeb said while walking in and moved next to me, while I grabbed a glass and a bottle of orange juice and poured myself a drink.

"I wonder," I said sarcastically and walked off to my room.

"Hey, I'm gonna come with you," Ella said and followed me into my room.

"Arghh, what is with him, "I groaned and fell onto my bed.

"He doesn't get it," Ella said and picked up a pen and started writing on a piece of scrap paper.

"Yeah, we can all see that," I replied and sat up. "Do you reckon Mum is happy he's here?"

"I don't think that she's especially angry, but I can't say she's especially happy either," Ella answered we both laughed.

"Let's hope she's not happy coz maybe then we'll see her kickin him out to the streets," I laughed and stared at my poster of Alex Pettyfer **(A/N He is soooo frickin hot! If you don't know what he looks like then Google image him)**.

I didn't know that Jeb and Mum had even been happy together. I mean, they're the most unusual couple ever. Mum is the head of a Vet Clinic here in New York, which is called Veterinary Hills, I know lame name but she couldn't think of any better names to call it. Jeb was a scientist, but I have no clue what he specialises in, probably finding a cure for dickheads.

"I don't think that'll be happening tonight," Ella said unfortunately, fiddling with a page from my magazine that was sprawled out on my fluro orange bedspread.

"Damn, I was kinda wishing for it," I smiled and stared up into the ceiling.

"Ok, change of subject, I heard this from a friend, but, is it true that you and Fang are going out? Because if you are well, that's cute," Ella said and glanced up at me from the page.

"What! Where did you hear that? Who told you that?" I sat up immediately. Damn. Wrong move. Now I've got dizzy spells happening as well as a migraine that was starting to appear.

"Like I said, a friend," Ella replied and looked at me confusedly, like she couldn't understand why I had a major reaction.

"God! What is it with people and gossip these days! Can't they just keep their bloody annoying beaks out of everything? Seriously," I threw up my hands and got off the bed.

"What is it with sisters and getting weird whenever you ask them about their boyfriends?" Ella muttered under her breath, obviously hoping that I didn't hear her.

I did though. "What did you say?" I spun around and gave her a challenging glare.

"Nothing," she quailed and shrank back.

"That's what I thought," I said and started marching around in circles like whenever I get anxious.

It was like that for about ten minutes, me pacing around, probably losing about two kilos every three minutes and Ella flipping through pages of a magazine. Occasionally I would stop and open my mouth but close it straightaway.

"Ella! Max! Dinners ready!" Mum shouted from the kitchen.

"Ready to face the pain-in-the-ass mass?" I asked Ella as we both headed out of the door.

"Nowhere near ready," she replied and we both walked down the stairs grimly.

I gasped when we reached the dining room. Normally we would never use this room.

"Uh, Mum. What's the occasion?" I asked. Mum had really outdone herself. She had pulled out her finest china and glasses and her mums silver ware and they were neatly placed on the white and pink laced table cloth.

"Nothin dear, just thought we should eat together like a proper family," she replied and pulled out a large tray of chicken out of the oven.

"This doesn't look like any week day meal, it looks like your wedding feast," Ella said, goggling at the table as well.

"Don't be silly," Mum bustled around the room and checked all of the seats and the cutlery.

Ella and I looked at each other and smiled. Mum is actually happier than usual. Maybe it won't be so bad anymore.

Our smiles disappeared when Jeb walked into the room. I looked away when he smiled at us and I'm pretty sure that Ella was making rude gestures behind his back. I stifled a laugh and we walked to one side of the table. Jeb smiled at us again and when we didn't do anything but give him frosty glares, Mum made a sound at the back of her throat so we both planted fake smiles on our faces and smiled at him.

"C'mon sit and let's eat,' he said and pulled out Mums chair for her.

Mum giggled and I rolled my eyes while pushing back my chair and sitting in it. He decide to sit the opposite side of the table from me and I was tempted to chuck a glass of water in his face but thought better of it.

"What a loser,' I leant over and whispered in Ella's ear. She nodded in agreement and we both stared at our parents.

The whole way through dinner was unbearable. Jeb (there was no way I was calling him dad, he doesn't deserve it) kept saying stupid jokes and trying to make Ella and I laugh but not even my mouth twitched whenever he said anything. In fact, every joke he said made me have a totally different reaction to what he wanted. I wanted to yell at him. Scream and rage around, asking him where the hell has he been all these years? Did he expect to come from nowhere and be accepted? Why wasn't he ever here for my tenth birthday? Or when Ella went to school for the first time? Huh? I thought fathers were dependable! How come he never was here when I first learnt to ride my bike, to be able to come home and tell him that I got an award at school? Where the hell was he?

Mum saw that I was losing my nerve but she just gave me warning look and I stared at the clock, hoping that it would go faster so that Jeb would realize that it was getting late and his dinner was getting cold but oh no, god wanted to kill me slowly.

Finally I couldn't take it no more and I scraped my chair back and stormed out of the kitchen in a huff. I grabbed my jacket and walked out of the front door and nearly slammed it through the walls.

I didn't know where I was going; I just needed to get out of there quickly as possible. Dozens of emotions coursed through me and I felt my hands tremble with rage. How dare he just walk through the door like he owned the joint! If I wasn't afraid of being kicked to the streets, I would've punched him by now.

I guess I was too caught up in my rage that I didn't notice that I had bumped into a person until I was knocked flat on the ground.

"Hey watch it-"my voice caught up in my throat when I looked up to see a tall male version of me looking down.

"Ari?" I asked, too shocked to say anything else.

"Hello sister," he said and grinned evilly.


	5. Chapter 5

**I should've done this ages ago but oh well**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride**

Chapter 5

"What? How is this happening? I thought you were dead?" I could only just say the words, too shocked for anything.

"You thought wrong," he replied and pulled my upright. His dishwasher blonde hair fell into his melted choc brown eyes and I couldn't help but think that I was the exact copy.

"But, we saw you, you were all crippled and burned," I said my eyes widening while remembering the thought of the day we were informed of his death.

Flashback

_Knock, knock. Someone was at the door and I reached out to open it. Two police officers looked at me and smiled._

"_Hello deary, how are you today?" The blonde woman said squatting down and talking to me._

"_Good," I replied in my childish voice._

"_That's good then, what's your name?" she asked sounding innocent._

_I thought I could trust her so I said, "Maximum but you can call me Max if you'll be my friend," _

"_Ok then Max, listen, is your mummy home? Or your daddy?" she asked kindly._

_I bit my lip and nodded. I hope mummy hadn't done anything wrong._

"_Can we please talk with them?" she said and stood up._

_I nodded again and opened the door to let them in._

"_Thank you," the man finally said something in his deep gravelly voice._

_I walked out to the washing line where Mummy was hanging out Ari's football clothes and I tugged on her dress._

"_What is it Maxie?" she looked down at me and smiled._

"_Plise here," I said. I wasn't very old so Police came out as plise (pul-iss)_

"_Why are they here?" she asked getting worried._

_I shrugged. I just thought that it was cool that someone important had come to our house._

"_Oh dear," mum said and put down the piece of clothing and took my hand and walked inside._

"_Hi, Mrs Martinez?" the lady put out her hand sand Mum shook it._

"_Yes, hello," she replied and sat down and pulled me onto her lap._

"_I'm Senior Sergeant Mackie and this is Officer Doyle, is there anywhere we can talk in private? We have some news concerning your son, Ari," she asked gently._

_Mummy's face went white and the grip she had on my hips to keep me upright on her knee went hard._

"_Mrs Martinez?" Snr Sergeant Mackie prodded gently._

"_Uh yes, um, the kitchen?" Mummy replied and her voice shook._

"_Right," Snr Sergeant Mackie said and both of the police officers got up and waited for Mummy to show them the way._

_Mummy slid me off her knee and got up. I went to follow her but she said, "No Maxie, go to your room and play with your dolls."_

"_But I don't wanna," I shook my head and reached up for her hand._

"_Please Maxie, I promise I'll play with you later, just do this one thing for me," Mummy pleaded and her voice shook._

_I shrugged, satisfied with the agreement. I trudged upstairs to my pink and white room and sat down on my soft light brown carpet. I pulled out my Barbie dolls and started to play with them._

_15 minutes later and I heard Mummy and the police come out of the kitchen. I also heard Mummies sobs and sniffles through my door and I knew instantly that something was wrong. They had said something about Ari. Did he do anything wrong? Did he kick a football into someone's window and is locked up in jail? Will he be alright?_

_I hurriedly rushed downstairs in my short stumpy seven year old legs and saw Mummy quickly and hurriedly dabbing at her eyes to make it look like nothing was wrong. But I knew better._

"_What's wrong Mummy? Is Ari alright?" I asked, feeling scared._

"_Nothing's wrong h-honey, just a lit-little setback," Mummy hiccupped. If I didn't know Mummy better I would have fell for it._

"_Uh huh," I said unconvinced._

"_Don't worry 'bout it, now go upstairs and change into some suitable clothes for Mummy and we need to check something out at the police station," Mummy said and shooed me off while turning to the police people and talking in animated gestures._

_I didn't know what was happening but I had a bad feeling. I climbed back up the stairs and chucked a dress on and looked for my fairy shoes. I found them under my bed and I struggled to get them. By the time I had managed to wriggle under my bed and retrieve them and squirmed my way out, it was ten past three. I quickly slipped my flats on and ran down the stairs where Mummy was waiting, distraught and unhappy. _

_She took my hand and helped me into the car seat and fixed my seatbelt. I watched as she climbed into the car and turned on the ignition, knowing that sooner or later she would give away a sign that meant a bad thing. _

_But I kept on getting distracted by all the shops and the pretty girls and boys that we passed. Everyone was so happy and Mummy was the odd one out. I had no clue what was going, and I didn't like it. I always knew what was going on, and if I didn't, I would sooner or later._

_We pulled up outside the cop shop and we got out. Mummy took a deep breath and squared her shoulders and we both walked in, hand in hand._

_A pretty red head greeted us at the receptionist and Mummy stated her purpose in a quiet tone, obviously not wanting to me to hear. I noticed the red-head smile fade away and pity and sadness replaced it. She said something and Mummy nodded and thanked her. She dragged me away and we walked into a white room that had something big and bulgy underneath a blanket._

_A doctor was waiting for us and he stood up once he recognised her._

"_Mrs Martinez?" he stood up and held out his hand._

'_Hello,' she replied and shook his hand. I noticed that her hands were shaking._

"_This is the body," he showed her and gave me a quick glance._

"_She's alright, she has to know one way or another," Mummy said and stared at the body._

_A body? Why would Mummy be looking at a body? Then it dawned on me. Ari didn't do anything wrong. He can't go to jail now. Because that was his body. Under the plastic sheet._

_I shook my hand out of mummy's grip and ran towards the body. The doctor tried to grab me but I dodged his big lanky hands and lifted up the sheet. _

_I gasped. It was horrifying! The burnt mangled pieces of something that you could only just recognise as a body was lying underneath, I sobbed. No! It couldn't be Ari! It couldn't be my twin! If he died I would've known about it! Mummy's gasps broke right through me and I sank onto the floor and curled into a ball. The rest of the time there was just a blank piece of darkness._

_The time I remember after that was when I was in my room staring blankly at the wall. Mummy's hesitant knock on my door remained unheard from me. I glanced at the Barbie dolls. Suddenly they seemed childish and immature. That was the day I decided that I would grow up and revenge Ari. No matter the cost._

End of Flashback.

Ari grinned his evil smile. "No, Dad just burnt up this lame dude that got a bit too smart with him,"

I shuddered. "Wait! You said Jeb did all of this?" I gestured to him disbelievingly.

"Yes, taught me everything I know," Ari grinned proudly and looked around him.

"Well I always knew he was evil, but I didn't think that he would be this evil," I muttered. I couldn't believe it! All this time we were deceived.

"He's not evil, he just loves his work. You should see what he does! It's amazing! Its revolution! It changes everything!" he said and threw his arms out wide.

"And all this time you've been deceiving us! We thought you were dead Ari! Dead! To think that I actually cared for this long! I just can't believe I fell for it!" I screeched not even listening to what he was saying.

"Awww come on sis, you can't say you haven't missed me,' he grinned and opened his arms out for a hug.

"You are a traitor Ari! I can't believe we share the same blood!" I said and stepped back when he moved closer.

"I'm not a traitor! I was chosen for this! Me! Out of everyone me! I was the first and Jeb was successful because of me!" Ari said in a deathly voice walking towards me. I gulped and stepped back.

He grinned and the moonlight hit his teeth. For the first time I saw the pointed ends of the razor shape teeth and his dog wolf grin.

"What are you?" I asked in a disgusted voice.

"Guess,' he grinned and backed me into a wall.

"Something stupid I s'pose," I said sarcastically but weakly.

He growled and I flinched.

"I don't know! A were wolf?" I asked stupidly.

"Now who's stupid?" he asked pressing my back to the wall.

"Let me go Ari or I'll give you a broken nose as well as bloody sore balls,' I said in a deathly voice that put his to shame.

"I'm not hurting you," he stated and breathed on me.

Ewwww, his breath smelt like dog breath.

"Haven't you ever brushed your teeth during the time you left us?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Don't be sarcastic bitch," He growled and grabbed my hands.

"I'm not, just stating the obvious,' I replied and tried to wriggle out of his grip.

"You are seriously pushing my temper," Ari said and pushed me in front of him and made me march towards a van that was discreetly parked on the curb on the other side of the park.

"Where are we going? Let go of me!" I struggled and kicked out. Panic was starting to erupt and my struggles were futile.

"Daddy's orders," Ari grinned and we were so close to the van. I kicked and struggled but it was no use. I hate to admit but he was stronger than me. I realized that it was no use and sagged in defeat.

Just when I thought that all was lost. I heard a sickening crunch and Ari's grip loosened on me. I turned around and saw a dark mysterious guy punching that shit out of Ari. I didn't even think about running, I just stood there gaping at the fight.

Soon enough Ari was on the ground and my savoir was standing with his arms around me.

"Are you alright?" a deep voice asked me.

"Uh yeah. Thanks for that. Whoever you are," I replied and pushed myself out of the grip.

The moonlight hit his face and I gasped. Fang!

"Fang?" I asked joyfully.

"Hey, are you sure your alright?" he asked sounding concerned.

"Yeah im fine,' I said and hugged him back.

"Who was that dickhead?" he asked looking down at Ari's unconscious body.

"My twin brother,' I answered.

"Your twin brother? I never knew you had a twin," he said sounding confused.

"Well, I do. Everyone thought he was dead though when I was seven, so you can imagine my surprise when my dad showed up out of nowhere and then Ari reappears from the dead,' I explained.

"Huh," was all Fangs reply.

"Dont make me explain it all, it gives me a headache," I sighed and snuggled further to him.

He squeezed me tight and planted a kiss on the top of my head. We stayed like for about ten minutes and then he pulled me out of his arms.

"C'mon, we've gotta get you home," he asid and we walked hand in hand back to my house.

**A/N I know I've explained at the start of this story that Ari is alive and he likes JJ but thats not the actual Ari, Valencia Martinez adopted a guy and changed his name to Ari because she thought that he could replace the actual Ari. Sorry to confuse you guys! But I'll try to find away to distinguish the actual Ari and replacement Ari in the future. Just also want to say thanks so much for the reviews! They help a lot! Mwah! xx**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

When we got home no one tried to push my issue and I didn't tell mum about Ari. This was a secret to keep until I had proof.

_That is very wise Maximum,_ someone said.

_Huh? What? Oh it's you Voice,_ I said sourly and tried to block his voice out of my head. Too many problems are in my brain and I don't need a voice added to the growing pile.

_You should appreciate you have me you know Max, not everyone has a special voice,_

I snorted. Hah! _As if you're special._

_Oh I am, I am one of a kind, maybe you've noticed but I only hang around in great times of trouble,_ Voice was seriously getting on my nerves.

Yeah whatever, go away now, I need some sleep, and I thought and climbed into my bedcovers

The next day went well. I tried to turn over a new leaf, starting with my attitude, but you know, since I've grown up being less of a girl and more of a bad, bully guy, it was kind of a challenge.

This morning I woke up to the sound of something blaring from my bedside table. I jumped up and stared at my clock in amazement. What the hell was wrong with it? And what the hell was that noise it was making? It was bloody loud and it hurt my ears.

I ran downstairs and held it up to mum, while it was still going. "Mum! There's something wrong with my clock! Ahhh there's something coming out of my clock" I yelled urgently, shaking it up and down vigorously trying to make it shut up.

"Settle down Max, it's alright, it's just your alarm, I put it on last night so you can finally wake up on time," Mum said calmly while packing a fresh batch of cookies into Ella's lunch box.

"Oh," was all I could say.

"I'm guessing you've never heard of an amazing thing called an alarm?" Ella said arriving and grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl.

"Nope, never. Since when has it been around," I said sarcastically back.

"Oh, not very long, just a couple of decades," Ella replied while rolling her eyes.

"Interesting," I said and pretended to be a scientist with my beard and pulling on it like I was thinking of something important.

"Max, go on up back to your room and get dressed," Mum ordered and slammed my clock on the bench to shut it up. "That's how you turn it off," She explained and chucked it at me and I caught it.

I rolled my eyes and went to get dressed.

I came back out ten minutes later wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a pink shirt that read, I didn't lose, and I just let you win! I also had a pair of canvas shoes and a diamond necklace that I had gotten from Nudge for my thirteenth birthday and a Pandora bracelet that Mum had bought me simply for a non occasion, maybe she was feeling generous. My hair was in a simple pony tail, twisted with a curl with a flourish at the end.

"Are you ready yet Max? Nudge and JJ are at the gate waiting for you," Mum yelled and I ran downstairs.

"Yeah, yeah, they can wait," I said and grabbed my bag from the bench which Mum had just finished packing.

She pushed me out the door and waved good bye. Ella had already taken off with her other friends. "By the way honey, you look great!" Mum yelled when I was halfway out the gate.

I waved back in reply and all three of us walked to school in high spirits.

Fang was leaning on the school gate when I arrived at school. My breath caught in my throat whenever I looked at him. I couldn't believe he was mine. The hottest guy in history was mine!

He grinned at me and casually kissed on the lips like it was nothing.

"Hi," I managed to say after the shock from the kiss.

"Hey," he said and smiled slyly.

I giggled (yeah I giggled, get over it) girlishly and Nudge and JJ waved good-bye to me when Fang pulled me away.

"How are you?" He asked concernedly.

"Uh, great. Why?" I replied confusedly.

"Well you know, not every day you find out your brother is alive and your dad pops out from space, but if you think it's normal, go ahead," he said and raised one eyebrow like he couldn't believe I never even figured what he was talking about.

"Oh," I said and thought about. Strangely enough, I hadn't even given it much thought. I wasn't even shaken up by it that much. It kinda rolled over me, like a piece of grass.

"Oh? Care to elaborate?" fang shook his head.

"Well the thing is, I don't even care! If Ari is alive, I should be rejoicing! He's my twin brother! And he's not dead anymore, you know," I explained and wished desperately that he would just let it go.

"Right," he said slowly, like he couldn't even understand me.

I shook my head. He just didn't get it. I don't want to even remember anything about last night. Jeb was hard enough but Ari, I couldn't even begin to comprehend that he is actually talking, walking, breathing even though his breathe smells like dog.

"Don't worry, I just want to be a normal student today, I want to forget about last night and take a break," I explained and sighed.

"Hey, I know what you mean. But I got news for you," he said mischievously.

"What?" I asked smiling.

"We are now officially a couple,' He smiled and I laughed.

He picked me up and twirled me around.

We walked into the hall some time later when Lissa walked up to me.

"You stealing little rotten bitch!" she said coming up behind me with her trail of posse hot on her heels.

"I'm pretty sure I have no clue what you're going on about?" I raised an eyebrow questiongly at her.

'You stole Fang off of me!" she informed and her face was as red as red can be.

"I'm also pretty sure Fang was a free agent before we got together as well," I said and walked to my locker.

Of course she had to follow me.

"That's only because he wouldn't admit his undying love for me," she said snappily. I turned around and gestured towards Lissa to Fang.

"Go ahead honey, admit it,' I said sarcastically waiting for his response.

"Nothing to admit," Fang said and smiled.

"Nothing to admit Hey? Well Lissa, I'd say I'm really sorry for your poor little black heart to be broken, but I'm not a liar," I said smartly and turned on my heel to go to my next class.

She let an ear-splitting shriek out and I was temporarily deaf for a little bit but unfortunately not to hear her last words.

"This isn't over Maximum!" she stormed off and her 'friends' all tittered behind her as she caused an earthquake around the school.

"Girls," I said dramatically and shook my head.

"What are you talking about? Your one of them," Fang slid his arm around me and we walked to class laughing and making stupid jokes about Lissa and her 'undying love problem'

That class went rather well I must say. Even though we had a substitute teacher that thought he was all that and he was Einstein, English was quite enjoyable. The extra bonus was Lissa wasn't in that class and Fang was.

Nudge and JJ just sat next to me giggling and saying stuff about Fang like, "Oh that's so cute," and "Isn't he romantic?"

I could hardly stand it. Now I know how it feels like for boys who have mushy mushy girlfriends. Maybe that's why there have been increases of teenage boy's drug overdoses lately...

I was just joking. But maybe that could be the reason. Oh god, I'm babbling again.

Walking in the cafeteria for the first time with Fang was exactly like it was on Twilight (yes I've watched it, no I don't think Edward is cute, if I had a choice and if I was Bella, I would go for Jacob, the one that has a rockin' bod and some sexy six packs) when Edward and Bella were walking into school the first time together. Everyone was staring at us.

"I wonder what they're looking at, don't you?" I asked in a loud voice.

Everyone immediately blushed and went back to their own business. I rolled my eyes. Seriously guys, give some people privacy please!

"Hey Max, did you hear about Lissa?" Nudge said before I actually touched the seat.

"Nope, but I've heard _from _her," I replied and pulled out my lunch and the bag of cookies that Mum packed for me.

I saw Iggy and Gazzy sit up straight when they spied my cookies and I secretly smiled. If they wanted some, their gonna have to beg.

"Oh yeah, I heard about that little confrontation thing in the hall with you two," Nudge said and picked daintily at her salad in her pink container.

"So what are you talking about then?" I asked curious to know.

"Oh well, I got this from a reliable source so don't get mad at me thinking it's wrong but..." Nudge leaned forward but saw Lissa and, What the Freak? Ari? (Not the thought was dead Ari but replacement Ari) walking towards us with her hand on his arm protectively.

"Uh, am I seeing things or can you guys see Lissa and my brother together?" I asked staring at them.

"No, I can see them, sadly," Iggy replied and I wanted to bang my head against the table.

"Hello guys, Fang," she smiled smugly and I so badly wanted to wipe that look from her face.

"What do you want Lissa? A rematch?" I asked tiredly. I was so sick of the bitchy comments from slut over here.

"No, I'm over Fang, I've got another guy on the line," Lissa said and patted Ari next to her.

He smiled at me and nodded to Fang.

"And obviously he bought it hook, line and sinker, which is actually really sad," Gazzy said and we giggled. Correction, Nudge, JJ, Gazzy and Iggy giggled. Fang and I just sat there not even smiling.

"Shut it Zephyr," Lissa snapped and turned to Ari. "It's alright baby pie; they just don't get our love,"

"Baby pie? That's your sicko love nickname?" I started laughing. Hard. I could hardly talk.

"..." was all Ari's reply.

"Hehehehehe," I couldn't stop giggling. My belly was killing me.

'Oh come of it Maximum," Lissa said and pulled Ari away.

"Oh and by the way, I'll be stopping by your house after school today, so don't be surprised if you see me," Lissa called from her shoulder and twitched away with Ari.

That shut me up. "She is soooo not going my room," I growled and grabbed a cookie.

Nudge and JJ made sympathetic noises and Gazzy and Iggy just patted my back.

"Hey, anyway, I'm coming over to your house so maybe we can annoy the hell outta her so she'll go home quicker,' JJ suggested and I felt bad immediately. Ari had a crush on her and I think JJ had the same in return. Then Lissa the redhead skank had to take him.

"That sounds great," I said and everyone started planning what we should do.

"Hey Max, seeing as you have so many cookies, you wouldn't mind sharing them around would you?" Gazzy asked and gave me a hopeful look.

I was so lost in my own thoughts about Ari and Lissa that I pushed my whole bag of cookies into the middle of the table and didn't stop the guys from grabbing one, maybe two each.

By the time I came back, the bag was empty. Great.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! THanks so much for all the reviews! Much appreciated!**

**Some people are confused about the Ari part. So Im gonna explain. Here I go.**

**The real Ari is 'suppose' to be dead but he isnt. Valenicia (who btw is maxs mother if you dont know) adopts a kid called Kallum Widge who looks exactly like Ari. The only reason why she did that is so Max would think that Ari didnt die and everything was alright. So from now on the fake Ari will now be called Kallum. Sorry to confuse you all! My plot has kind of changed a bit. **

Chapter Seven

At the end of school JJ and I walked to my house by ourselves because Nudge had an appointment at the hairdressers straight after school so her Mum picked her up at the school gate.

JJ and I just chatted for a while, you know, about Fang, Fang and Fang. Oh and Ari. Just boys.

When we were walking up the footpath I saw signs that Jeb was home. I could smell Chinese noodles, which is something that I totally do not like, I could see a freshly mowed lawn, which is something that only happens about once a month, if Mum had enough money or cookies to bribe me with, and the gate latch was fixed. Not saying that our house was a total wreck and that we didn't look after it, it just was that none of us ever really found time to do any of those house work chores.

"Hey, who fixed the gate?" JJ asked after we closed it.

"Dunno," I answered and looked around. The neighbourhood seemed quiet; normally it would be loud because of all the kids coming back from school with their friends and stuff. Quiet only happens when Jeb is home. He likes it when he can do his work in peace.

I stifled a laugh when I remembered the time when he had came out of the house about five years ago, basically the last time I'd ever seen him, yelling and screaming at everyone within earshot. By the time he had looked down and realised that he was wearing blue boxers and no shirt, he was the laughing stock of the street.

I reached for the doorknob, about to open the door when it flew open.

JJ screamed and Jeb had a look of shock.

"Jesus!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Actually, it's just me, but I've been told the resemblance is startling," I said smartly and grabbed JJ's hand and pulled her inside.

Jeb looked at me and shook his head and walked out and closed the door behind him.

I ushered her into my room upstairs and when I closed the door, she turned around and I saw her eyes were the size of fly's eyeballs.

"Was that you dad?" she asked in shock.

"Yep," I answered and dumped my bag on the floor and sat on my bed while JJ sat in my desk chair.

"When did he get here?" she asked.

"Last night," I said and looked at a picture of me and Ella that was sitting on my bedside table.

"And you didn't tell us this why?" she asked staring at me.

I shrugged, "Forgot,"

"Uh huh, sure, totally believe that," JJ said sarcastically.

"I dunno, I just hoped that he would be outta here before anyone realised he was here, so there wouldn't be any fuss," I replied and played with Bear, my teddy bear that had a ginormous tie. Instead of teddy, I changed it to Tieddy. Added the i. Yes I'm weird, get over it.

"I feel sorry for you," JJ said sympathetically.

"I feel sorry for myself too," I said and sat up. "C'mon, let's go and see if Mum has baked anymore of her famous choc chip cookies,"

We walked downstairs and saw Lissa and Ari sitting on the couch.

"Great," I muttered to JJ and she rolled her eyes.

"Hey girls," Mum walked into the room with a batch of choc chip cookies in her hands on a tray.

"Ooooh yum, cookies," I ran towards her but she stepped aside.

"Hey? What the-"I nearly collided with the bookcase.

"No one eats these 'cept for Ari and Lissa," Mum said and handed them to her and Ari.

"Thanks Mrs Martinez, it's awfully kind of you to bake a batch, just for me and Ari," Lissa said so sweetly that I wanted to vomit.

"It was nothing darling, just a bit of kindness," Mum replied and went back into the kitchen.

I glared and Lissa and smiled back at me.

"Gee, fancy seeing you here Max," Lissa said sarcastically.

"Ok bitch, I'm gonna give you boundaries ok? You're not allowed to go into the kitchen, laundry, the top floor rooms, backyard, bathroom, front yard unless your leaving, toilet, shed, hall, main room or the sun room, got it?" I said with a cold smile.

"But then I have nowhere else to go but here," Lissa said.

"Exactly my point," I said turning around and motioning to JJ to follow me.

"That's one way to avoid her," JJ said and we went through the cupboards in the kitchen looking for something to eat.

"Here you go girls, here's some money to go out and buy some food, I need to clean the house and the last time I did that with you two around it ended up to be even messier then it was before," Mum handed me some change and JJ and I bolted out of the door quicker than you could say Hallelujah.

As we were walking to the shops, JJ confessed that she had a crush on Ari.

"Seriously?" I said in shock.

"Yeah," JJ said looking uncomfortable.

"Are you friggin serious?" I repeated.

"Uh huh," JJ nodded.

"Ohmyfuckinggod, my best friend is a leso," I joked but I felt like a bomb was landed on me.

"What? Why?" JJ said looking confused.

"You know, Ari's a girl, so you like a girl. Girl likes Girl equals lesbian love," I explained and laughed at the look on JJs face.

"Hahaha, funny, seriously Max, I can't help it. It's cosmic," JJ said and looked at me pleadingly.

"Well, I can tell ya that you're not soul mates," I said and we continued walking down the street.

I looked at the ground where old chewing gum stuck to the pavements and cigarette butts and rubbish littered the ground.

"How do you know?" JJ asked and kicked at a loose stone that was in her way.

"Well for instance, you guys are completely incompatible," I replied and bit my lip. I couldn't actually believe it. My best friend in love with my fake brother. Unimaginable!

"How so?" she asked not really believing me.

"Umm, he's a dick, you're a nice girl. He isn't a big fan of cars, but you love them. He is more of a girl where you are more of a guy. He's-"

"Alright, alright, I get it, but seriously Max, I can't help it," JJ cut in and looked mournfully on.

"You know what," I put my arm around her shoulder, "I'll help you win Ari back, and when you ask him out and you start dating, do me a favour and don't get married," I joked but I was half serious. I was serious about the 'I'll help you win Ari back' bit.

"Thanks Max, you're a real friend," JJ hugged me and I hugged her in return.

When we got back home about an hour afterwards Lissa had gone and Ari had broken up with her.

"Jeez, that was a short relationship," I said looking at Ari who was sitting on the couch flicking through the TV channels.

"Not quick enough," JJ muttered so that only I could hear.

I gave her an encouraging smile and said, "So Ari, dating anytime soon?"

"Huh?" he said turning around and giving me a confused look.

I rolled my eyes, "Are-you-dating-any-time-soon," I said, stringing the words out clearly for the moron in front me.

Ari shrugged, "Depends, if the girls worth it,"

I shook my head. "I have a dumbass for a brother, c'mon JJ lets go and stalk someone at the park,"

Ari jumped up as soon as I said JJ. "JJ? Oh hi JJ! How are ya?"

"Uh, what? Oh I'm cool," JJ stuttered, confused by his quick reaction.

"I didn't know you were coming over today," he said and gave her a flirty smile.

JJ shrugged, "I don't tell you what or when I'm coming over to your house, so of course you wouldn't know,"

"..." Ari couldn't think of anything else to say.

I think JJ got the idea that I was thinking. Play hard to get.

"C'mon Max, let's go and see if there's any guys down at the oval," JJ started to turn when Ari jumped in.

"I'll come! My friends might be there and I'm bored here,"

I shrugged, "Whatever,"

"Hey JJ, before we go, can I ask you a question?" Ari asked hesitantly.

"Ah, sure," JJ answered looking a bit nervous.

"Are you dating anyone at the moment?"

"...N-o-o-o-o...why?" JJ said, blushing. I know what's gonna happen next.

"Well, would you go out with me? Ari asked, his face turning the same colour as his ex-girlfriends hair.

"Umm," JJ laughed nervously and looked at me.

I shrugged. She could date whoever she wanted to.

"You don't have to say yes," Ari said looked at the ground and scuffed his feet.

"Well, yeah, I'll go out with you," JJ decided quickly.

Ari's face lit up and he smiled at her, "Really?"

"Yeah," JJ replied and laughed.

"Well isn't this a nice conversation," I butted in.

Ari glared at me, "Your still here?"

"I never was going to go anywhere anyway," I replied smiling at him.

"Oh come of it you guys," JJ said half heartedly.

"By the way JJ, one piece of advice for you, don't make him say anything that's got more than two syllables in it, he's incapable of that," I said and turned away and walked out of the room to leave the two lovebirds to do their thing.

"Hey!" I heard Ari shout indignantly behind me.

"What?" I asked with a mocking smile on my lips.

"Are you saying I'm not smart?" he asked and stood up.

"Yeah, I guess I am," I shrugged.

"That's it you-"I cut off Ari.

"Now, now, Ari, no need to harsh names, I was just stating the truth," I said like an adult.

"And what _I_ was calling you the truth," Ari replied snarkily.

"No, what you _were_ _going to_ call me the truth is actually a lie," I corrected, smiling smugly a bit.

"Do you want me to lose my temper?" Ari growled. Jeesh, it was kinda scary, almost like he was Ari.

"Nah, it's alright, I was just leaving," I said and quickly ran out of the room and into Mums study where I found my dog Total curled up on her desk chair.

'Hey buddy boy," I said and scooped him up in my arms.

"Hey Max, will you play ball?" Ok. That was not freaky. I swear I just heard Total speak. But of course that's completely crazy.

"Hahaha, you know what's funny?" I said to him smiling and burying my face into his black, shiny soft fur.

"Nope," he replied but I ignored him, thinking that I was talking to myself, or hearing things.

"I thought you talked," I kept going, and looked around the room at mum's messy desk to the great big books on the bookshelf.

"You didn't _think,_ you _heard_," a voice said and I spun around the room, searching for its owner. I put down Total and got into a defensive stance.

"Down here," the voice said below me. I looked down slowly and saw Total looking up at me.

"Arghh!" I jumped up and landed in the chair. I couldn't believe it! My dog can talk!

Total just wagged his tail happily and stuck his tongue out and panted.

"Did you talk, or am I going bonkers?" I said slowly, kinda feeling like I was talking to myself.

"No, I talked, but guess you are bonkers," Total replied.

I didn't want believe it. But I saw his mouth moving when he talked so it was true.

"Great," I sighed, "First a Voice in my head decides that it wants to move in and be roommates, now my dog can talk. What could get any worse?"

"..." was all Total could say.

"Sorry, now my dog can talk and it doesn't even understand what I say most of the time," I threw up my hands. Could this day get any bad?

"No, I can understand you perfectly fine, I just don't have anything to say to that," Total replied and trotted up to me and jumped on my lap. I pushed him off and he jumped back up. I pushed him off again and he barked. I nearly jumped out of the chair and hit my roof. So he's going to play dog _now_ is he? I thought to myself as I edged out of the room. I seriously need to take a Panadol and get some rest.

So that's what I did.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Over a period of days I became more adjusted to the weirdness around me and I got comfortable with the idea that Fang and I were going out. I was _not _exactly comfortable with my adopted brother kissing my best friend and going out with her.

Wednesday, Cafeteria, Lunch:

"Hey guys! Guess what, I got tickets to see Katy Perry for all of us!"JJ announced strolling up to us while Ari was holding her hand.

"OMG are you serious? Katy Perry? That is so frigging awesome! I need to find the perfect outfit and organise the dates with my parents and I have to find Max something to wear! I need to do a major shopping day because all of my clothes are all so last week! I'm sure Katy Perry would appreciate someone with major fashion sense at her-conmerh erg jut, "Nudge said before I slapped my hand over her mouth.

"Let me put this in fifteen words or less, Thanks JJ your heaps awesome we would be delighted to go with you right guys?" Gazzy said rolling his eyes at Nudge. She opened her mouth and poked out her tongue on my hand.

"Ewwww!" I quickly snatched back my hand wiped her slobber off onto my jeans.

"Don't do that to me ever again otherwise Ill bit you next time," Nudge retorted and Iggy stifled a giggle.

"Yeah, isn't she something," Ari said proudly and kissed JJ on her mouth right in front of us.

"Ewwww," we chorused wrinkling our noses.

After they had finished JJ looked flustered but Ari gave us cool looks.

"Get a room you two,' I muttered.

"Well I've been trying to do that at home but you won't let me go anywhere near the rooms when JJ is with me," Ari retorted.

"That's because she is my best friend and I don't want her to become pregnant young," I retorted back. Yes that is the actual reason why I wouldn't let him near the rooms.

"What gives you the idea that we would do _that_?" Ari said and JJ blushed.

"You're a boy, she's a girl, you're a boy that's got hormones and she's a girl that you like and want. Do I need to say any more?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Whatever," Ari scowled and stomped away with JJ.

"Well that was a lot of brotherly love and sisterly love now wasn't it," Gazzy said sarcastically and the whole table burst into laughter.

When I got home with all the guys who were sleeping over, Jeb came out from hibernation.

"Hey Max can I talk to you?" he said casting an eye at my group.

"No," I said without even looking at him.

"It's important," he pleaded.

"So was my first day of school," I replied and headed to the kitchen, motioning for the group to follow me.

"Look I'm sorry Maximum but work is work and I couldn't just walk out for one petty little thing in your life," Jeb cried out while throwing up his hands in the air.

"And I can't walk out on my friends right at this minute for one other little petty thing in _your _life," I said smartly back. As I walked in the doorway, I saw the kitchen was deserted. Normally Mum would be cooking by now, because she knew I was bringing the guys around and we would be hungry.

"Where's Mum?" I asked turning around to Jeb.

"That's what I want to talk about," Jeb replied and I immediately got a bad feeling in my stomach.

"What happened?" I asked slowly, getting scared.

"Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" he asked looking at my friends.

I didn't try to tell him that there was no way I'm leaving my friends but I'm sure he realized that whatever was happening, I wasn't going in it alone.

"Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" he repeated.

I got a sense of de-ja-vu, like Jeb was one of the police officers that came around and spoke to Mum about real Ari.

I shook my head and said, "We can talk but with my guys,"

"Fine," Jeb said and we followed him into the lounge room.

Fang took my hand and I squeezed it and he squeezed back.

We all sat down on the big black leather couch while Jeb sat by himself in a matching chair opposite of us.

"What o you want to say about Mum?" I asked hoping to get this over and done with.

"Ok. Your Mum went out to do some shopping with Ella; she stayed home because she was feeling sick. She left about ten minutes after you left for school, and she hasn't been home since. I don't know if she went and met a friend or not after that but I don't know where she is," Jeb said in one big breath.

"And, I went for a walk," I snorted at that, thinking of Jeb going for a walk, "to the shopping centre where she said she was going and her car wasn't there and I went up and asked if the security guard if he had seen her and he said he saw a lady vaguely looking like her with a girl that looked like Ella but she was following a big, blonde, teenage male with a shocked look on her face," Jeb finished.

I froze. Oh god! A big, blonde, teenage male that sounded like Ari. What would Ari want with Mum? Surely he would never stoop that low. But after all Jeb was controlling Ari so Jeb could've asked Ari to kidnap Mum and Ella discreetly so he could show me who the boss was.

I felt an arm wrap around my waist and I thought it belonged to Fang but I didn't check. I was too busy staring at Jeb. All I wanted to do was rant and rave at him. Accuse him of attempt kidnapping and mumnapping. I wanted to tell him I knew his in-game and I was prepared to share it with the police. But of course I couldn't say that in front of all my friends.

"Hey are you alright babe?" Fang asked whispering in my ear.

I nodded at tiniest nod but inside I was screaming, _NO! I'M NOT! MY MOTHER JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT MY DEAD BUT ALIVE BROTHER WHO ISNT A VAMPIRE AND I'M THE ONLY ONE THAT KNOWS ABOUT JEB AND WHAT HES DOING! I WANT TO TELL SOMEONE BUT NO ONE WILL UNDERSTAND! HES GOT ELLA AS WELL! GRRRRRRRRRRR._

_Can you please keep the noise down Maximum? I'm trying to sleep, Voice was back._

No. I won't keep the noise down. Haven't you heard that my Mum is mum napped? I shouted at him/her or it.

_Yes I have, Voice replied in a non-interested way._

What do you thinks happening to her? I asked feeling very stupid asking myself a question.

No reply. Voice had vanished.

I saw everyone was staring at me. I was shaking so hard, tremors ran all up and down my body and Fangs face popped into view. He knelt on the floor, looking concerned up at me. His lips were moving but I couldn't hear anything. All of a sudden everything went black.

I had blacked out.

When I woke up I was in my room, with everyone surrounding me looking worried. The only person missing was Jeb. Figures.

"Hey what the-"I said in a gravelly voice when something black, hairy and small came flying towards me.

"Max! You're alive! You're alright!" Total licked my face enthusiastically. I was pretty sure his tail was wagging a million miles per hour but I couldn't see.

"Of course I'm alive, I didn't die in the first place," I said covering my face and pushing Total off of me. Yuck! Doggy slobber all over my face.

Fang handed me a T-shirt that was lying around on my floor and smiled.

I smiled back at him gratefully and wiped all of Totals saliva off. I pulled a face at Total and he just stuck his tongue out at me.

"Well excuse me for being happy that you're alive," Total muttered and Angel, who must've arrived from her and Gazzy's aunt's mansion while I was out of it, scooped him up and squeezed him in a hug.

"Isn't he adorable?" she squealed like a little girl.

I noticed that none of the guys looked shocked or anything about Total talking.

"Aren't you guys like, shocked or anything 'bout Total?" I asked looking around at everyone's faces. Nope. They didn't even look one bit surprised.

"No," They all chorused and shook their heads.

Well I was surprised at that.

They must've seen my blank look because Nudge piped up, "We're use to weirdness in your house. Remember that time when you were at the invisible friend stage, and you had one called Fred? And we stayed over once and we were all joking about and when you said, 'Fred, if your here open the window' and about ten seconds later your window flew open?"

"Ok, ok, no need to reminisce about embarrassing times," I said hastily. Yeah, I had an invisible friend called Fred, but that was when I was five. Ok six. Maybe seven. But that wasn't the point.

"Sorry," Nudge muttered. Fang had a look of amusement on his face.

"What? There's nothing wrong with having an invisible friend!" I said hotly.

Fang just shook his head and bit his lip.

The other guys started laughing.

"I'm only going to say this once, but if you're going to laugh, prepare yourself for a punch in the face," I warned looking at Gazzy and Iggy who was pissing themselves laughing.

They had immediately shut up. I gave a satisfied smile. Yeah. I have a wicked punch.

"Anyway," Iggy continued on, "What Nudge was trying to say, we're used to abnormalities when it comes to you and your family. After all, where had Total come from? Your Uncle Dobby's dog, Scooby Doo II. And that's some majorly messed up dog."

"I guess you have got a point there," I muttered.

"Hahaha, remember what your mum wanted to call him, BWMP, 'Born with Mental Problems'?" Gazzy said.

"What? Is there another Total around?" Total looked up from licking his paw daintily.

We all cracked up. I was in hysterics so bad that I nearly fell off the bed and Fang was chuckling too.

After we had finished, I felt better.

"Ah, that was great," I sighed smiling.

"Where is the other Total?" Total was searching around sniffing the floor frantically.

"Maybe that's why my bouncy balls disappear after I get them," he continued on.

"Or maybe it's because you roll them under the couch and your brain says you can't fit under it," I muttered and he looked up.

'Am In the one who was born with mental problems?" he asked finally catching on.

"Yes," I nodded. The look on his face was priceless.

"I was not born with mental problems!" he yelped and looked offended.

"No of course not," I agreed trying to stop from laughing hard.

"That's what I thought," he said sticking his nose in the air and resumed cleaning himself.

I shook my head. What a dopy dog I have.

There was a knock on my door and I yelled, "Come in!"

The door opened to reveal Jeb standing in the doorway holding a tray of biscuits and six steaming hot cups of hot chocolate. Ok, maybe Jeb was starting to get into the role of parents but just because he came in bearing gifts doesn't mean I'm gonna forgive him about the rest of my life. And he was still a suspect for Mum.

"I come bearing gifts," he said and I pointed to my desk, telling him to leave it there.

Everyone's faces lit up when they smelt or saw the food.

"How are you?" Jeb asked sounding concerned for the first time.

"Oh don't pretend like you care," I said looking at him.

"Well, you might be surprised, but I do care," Jeb replied.

"Your right, I am surprised," I said and got up from my bed.

Jeb didn't do anything but sigh. I grabbed a biscuit and dunked it in a cup of chocolate that I had claimed while thinking.

"What are we going to do about Mum?" I asked thoughtfully.

"Well I've been thinking about that, and I think we shouldn't call the authorities until tomorrow," Jeb replied.

"Why tomorrow?" Angel asked. I'm sure she had time to meet my ass of a dad.

"Because then we know that if her and Ella aren't home tonight, they were kidnapped because I don't think that they would stay over without calling or texting first to tell is so we wouldn't freak out," Jeb explained.

Yeah and how do you know all this? I felt like asking but I didn't want him to know I treated him as a suspect just yet.

"I hope they're alright," Nudge said fiddling with her hands. I noticed her hair was all messed up. Maybe from cuddling Total while he was howling about me being 'dead'.

"You and me both kiddo," I sighed and leaned against the soft pillows on my bed gratefully.

"I wonder who the big blonde dude is, you know the one that Jeb said," Gazzy said, frowning.

I sat up and quickly said, "Oh, it's probably just a teen punk,"

"Uh huh," the guys said but I'm pretty sure they noticed my weird behaviour.

"You know what, you guys should start bringing all your gear up here, otherwise we'll never get up to it," I said changing subjects.

"True," Nudge admitted and we all went downstairs.

"Hey, what do you guys want for tea," Jeb called out from behind us. I had completely forgotten that he was there, and I got a shiver when I thought of when Nudge had brought up the 'mystery blonde' topic.

Everyone looked at me and I shrugged. I didn't feel like eating anything right at this moment. I was too worried about Mum and Ella to even think of food.

"Dunno, food? Maybe?" Iggy replied for us and I stifled a snicker.

"Right, what type of food?" Jeb asked without even rolling his eyes.

"Edible food would be lovely," Gazzy answered and we walked out to the lounge to start carting all the clothes into my room.

It took up about half an hour to get everyone's things up to my room and about 45 trips up and down the stairs in total.

"Ugh, I'm, so glad that's finally over," I plonked myself on a chair with a sigh.

"Me too," Angel agreed and they copied my actions.

"What the frick did you pack in your bags Nudge?" Gazzy asked. Her bags weighed about ten tonnes each. I almost couldn't even pick them up from the ground.

"Clothes," Nudge replied and settled onto Iggs lap. I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Hmmmmm...

"Really? Coz unless you like wearing 'clothes' that are made from solid gold, I would say you packed bricks to throw at someone," Gazzy said staring at her and Iggy weirdly as well.

"Hopefully at Jeb," I mumbled and we shared a look.

_What's with Nudge and Iggy?_ His look read.

_I dunno, maybe you would like to tell me._ I sent back.

I could call myself confused. Nudge and Iggy? Is it just me or is everyone getting paired off? Just then Jeb popped his head through the door and waved the phone that was in his hand,  
"Hey guys, I can't really cook-"

I snorted, "Yeah we all knew that,"

"So I called for pizza. Is that alright? Are there any special requirements I need to know of? Or anything else?" Jeb continued on, ignoring my smart-ass comment.

"Oh yeah! I don't anchovies and pineapple on my pizza, and I don't eat garlic or prawns either, so I go for the meat lovers, and if you buy me any pineapple I will throw it over everyone's face, because you could say I'm kind of allergic to them," Iggy said being a smart-ass.

"Ok then...Anything else?" Jeb looked astounded.

"Nope, oh wait, I don't like garlic or prawns either," I said and crossed my legs and slung them over the arm of the chair.

"Right well that's all," Jeb walked out with a weird face.

"You're fussy," Nudge said to Iggy.

"Yeah, it's my nature," he replied and they both smiled sickly at each other.

I really hope they wouldn't kiss, but I knew it was worthless.

"Hey, I should get going, I need to go and do stuff," Fang said hopping up and leaning forward to kiss me.

"What? Why? Can't you stay a little bit longer?" I asked sadly.

"Nah, I gotta do homework and I need to go and practice with the guys tonight at eight so I need to get ready,' he replied.

I crossed my arms and pouted. He kissed me and walked off.

"Catch ya's later guys!" he waved goodbye to the others and walked out of the door.

"Damn. I wished he would stay a little but longer. He was hot." Angel stated without even blushing.

"Uh, no way girlfriend, he's mine," I said and everyone started to laugh.

"I know, I was just saying," Angel joked and the weight of seriousness left out of the air.

I felt m shoulders relax and I knew that this was one of the times when I actually felt safe and normal.

Even with everything going on, what with mum and Ella, I could finally be myself.

The doorbell rang and I got up and mumbled, "That must be the pizza man, I'll get it,"

I walked towards the door and when I opened it I got a shock of my life.

"Ari?" I squeaked and slammed the door shut. I started to shake. I never knew that he would have the guts to show his fat lying face around here.

"What's wrong Max?" Angel asked coming around the corner with the others trailing behind her. It was like she knew that something had happened. Freaky. Like she could read my mind.

"Nothing, just a surprise," I said, my voice sounding shaky.

Angel frowned suspiciously and reached out to open the door.

"No! Don't!" I yelled and l covered my body around the door.

"Hey, it's alright, I'll make sure its ok," Angel said, and it felt like I could trust her. That was strange. I moved out of the way and just stood there watching her. In my mind Voice was screaming, _Move you senseless ass now Maximum! Don't let her open the door!_

I ignored it-for the first time- and Angel twisted the door open.

Ari's face popped into my view and I felt uncontrollable anger flood into me. But I stayed still. I don't how or why but I did.

"Hello?" Angel said suspiciously and Ari gave her a charming grin.

"Hiya," he flashed her a smile but she didn't even notice, she had turned around to face me.

"Max?" she inquired and I knew that she was asking if I knew him.

I gave the tiniest of nods and she turned back to him.

"Hi," Angel gave him one of her best white smiles. I swear Ari looked a bit dazed.

"Uh, Max, who is this guy?" Iggy sidled up to me and whispered.

"Someone I really wish I don't know," I whispered back but didn't take my eyes off of Ari's face, which was staring at Angel like she was a goddess.

"Are you a friend of Max's?" she asked in a sweet voice.

"Uh, what? No, I'm a relative," he said shaking his head like he wanted to clear it.

"Oh? A cousin? A distant young uncle?" she said tilting her head like she was trying to figure him out.

"Whaa-? No, you wouldn't understand," Ari replied and his eyes fell on me.

I shivered with the intensity of his glare. It was like he wanted to kill me.

"Of course I wouldn't," Angel said in a smooth voice, "Would you like to come in?" she invited and stepped back holding the door open invitingly.

"Thanks," he said and stepped over the threshold,

I groaned inwardly. Great, the monster has a free pass into my house.

"Hi! I'm Nudge! What's your name? You look like Max! Has anyone ever told you that? Which side of the family are you related to? Max's mum or dad? Have you met her dad? He's really psycho and her mum and her sister Ella are in big trouble! And ug nughh nughh rrarr-"Iggy layed a hand over her mouth. Yet again must we shut her up. But I was used to it.

"Uh. Hi Nudge, I'm-"I cut off Ari.

"Well let's just all go to lounge and then we can get acquainted. I'm sure dinner will be here in a moment, and if you don't like meat lovers, then starve," I said and quickly marched down the hall.

I heard the guys behind me talking about me. Ari caught up to me though, just as I got to the doorway.

"What's wrong Max? Don't want your friends to know 'bout you're dead than alive brother? What are you scared of? Scaring your friends off?" Ari had a smarty pants look on his face that I so badly wanted to punch in but I thought better of it.

"No, actually, I'm scared that Jeb is going to find out, oh, wait! He already knows! Woops, my mistake, why don't I rephrase that in an understandable way. Go to hell! And take Jeb with you! He needs the holiday!" I stormed to the room and sat down on the couch in a huff.

"Well, well, I do believe I have gotten the Great Max's knickers in a twist," Ari grinned evilly.

I ignored him and watched as the gang sat back down on the big couch timidly.

Iggy and Gazzy had twin like confused looks on their face and Angel and Nudge just looked at Ari suspiciously.

"So, are these you 'friends'?" Ari asked me while giving all of them once over's.

"Nah, they're my monkeys. Of course they are!" I exclaimed irritably.

"No need to get all huffy," he said and Gazzy cracked a smile.

I just sat there giving him my worst stank eye.

"I wonder when the pizza arrives..." Nudge said absently staring at Iggy. If I wasn't too absorbed by Ari, I wouldn't think that she was a frigging stalker chick.

"It will come when it is ready," Iggy said wisely, settling back into the couch comfortably.

I was too high strung to even think about being comfortable.

"So what's been going on lately?" Ari asked slinging his arm over the side of the couch.

"Nothing," I looked at my phone because I saw it illuminate the inside of my jumper pocket.

Message from Fang.

From: Fang

Hey is everything alright?

Me:

No.

From: Fang

What's wrong?

Me:

Twin is in my house.

From: Fang

I'm coming over.

That was it. I'm coming over. I kind of felt better with the thought that if anything goes wrong I would have Fang to protect us.

Ari saw me texting and asked, "Who are you texting?"

"None of your business," I replied snidely and placed my feet up on the table.

"Right," he looked at me but I ignored him so he tried a different tactic to get my attention.

"So I heard that there is another person to take my place, where is he?" he inquired.

"With his girlfriend," I snapped and hoped that he would shut up.

"You know something, you haven't told us what your name is," Nudge said suddenly.

Oh no! What the hell could I do? If he tells them who he is they're going to be so surprised and confused and then I would have to tell them everything.

But if I don't let him tell them then they would be suspicious and more surprised.

Holy cow what am I suppose to do?

_Do what you think is right,_ Voice said suddenly.

Yeah, that's thing though, I said.

_One day they're going to find out. If you tell them now then they will be grateful for you being open to them but if they find out by pure chance, well then, it's going to be a nasty surprise, Voice said wisely._

It's going to be a nasty surprise either way, I insisted.

_But it will be less if you tell them now while you have the chance, and the evidence, it replied._

I sighed inwardly. Voice had a point. And sad as it is, I agree with it.

So before Ari could open his mouth to reply, I quickly cut in, deciding to come open.

"His name is Ari. He's my twin brother. Before you all go, what? But Ari is your younger brother and is going out with JJ and yada yada yada, well, let me explain." I held up a hand to shut Iggy up when he opened his mouth to say something.

"No! It's my turn to talk so just shut up and listen!" I took in a deep breath and it all rushed out, "When I was seven, my brother Ari burnt to death. Or so Mum and I thought. The police came over and took us to the morgue and showed us this guy's body and Mum said that it was Ari. So the police wrote him off dead and Mum thought that if I could forget that it was Ari's body that I saw at the place then I would just keep going on thinking that I had a twin still alive. This is the reason why she adopted Ari-the one that JJ's going out with. So I grew up thinking that Ari was my true brother until I hit 4th Grade. Now we all know that I was nosy at that point and so when I was looking through a bunch of mums stuff, I found a document saying that the government has giving mum a pass to adopt a kid called Kallum Widge. **A/N I just randomly made that name up so don't get confused.** I knew right then and there that I didn't have a true brother alive." I looked up from the ground where I had been telling the story to see all my friends' sympathetic faces staring at me and I saw Fang walking towards me. Ari was leaning back with his arms crossed listening intently. I continued on,"Until a couple of weeks ago, I never knew that my twin was still alive. Then Ari came. And I found out he wasn't like he was before."

I finished my story and I started to tear up. I leaned on Fangs arm, which he had out around me and was sitting next to me.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Nudge was quiet for once.

"Yeah same," Iggs said sadly.

Gazzy and Angel said at the same time,"Ditto."

I looked at Ari's face. It was impassive and it looked like he was made of stone.

"So now you know why I was so surprised and angry when I saw you,"

"That still doesn't change anything, your my sister and your trying to stop my Dad from achieving his lifes goal, and I cant let that happen," Ari shrugged and looked away from my stare.

"Hang on, what does this have to do with Jeb?" Angel asked in her sweet voice.

"Nothing, its too complicated right now," I stared at Ari, hoping that some of my words got through to him.

"You know what, Max. I reckon we need to talk, is there anywhere we can talk, privately?" Ari stood up and I scrambled up, hesitant.

"Why?"

"Because we need to straighten some things up," he replied and waited for me.

"Yeah, we can go to my room," I started walking when I stopped when I saw someone coming through the doorway.


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm back! And on track too! My life has been really messed up lately and I know have ive said I would update more often but yeah, its not quite working out as planned. But I just wanted to say hi to everyone just in case they got abit worried that ive disappearded off the face of the earth of got 'kidnapped'. hehehe get it? 'kidnapped?' me getting kidnapped and thats the name of my- oh dont worry. Anyway. . . Enjoy! **

Chapter 9

Just then Jeb came into the room and stopped dead in his tracks.

"What the hell?" he whispered staring with wide eyes at Ari.

I scoffed. "Oh come on, don't act so surprised to see him,"

"Wh-wha-whats going on?" he spluttered just standing in the middle of the room.

"Hey pop, I'll just be a minute," Ari grinned and waited for me to show him the way.

I didn't really want to go because I really wanted to make a scene but I thought that since Ari was the one offering to talk, I would take it, because it was like a once on a lifetime offer.

"What-where are you going? And who-how-uh-what-"Jeb could barely finish his words.

"Yeah, that was my exact reaction," I said sourly and motioned Ari to follow me.

We left Jeb gobsmacked in the middle of the lounge room with my equally gobsmacked friends and boyfriend. Ari followed me up the stairs and into my room.

"Ok," I said finally after closing my door with relief.

"Nice room," Ari said walking around and examining it for a very long time.

"Thanks," I was confused but then it hit me. Of course! This was his room when we were younger. I only moved in because my old room (now the spare room) was too small.

"What do you want to talk about," I asked curiously while walking around him to sit on my bed.

He turned around and gave me a very scary smile, "I missed you Maximum,"

"Yeah like that's likely," I scoffed. Wrong move.

"Do you know how long I waited for you and Mum to come and rescue me after I was kidnapped by Dad?" he said in a very scary voice that matched his smile.

I started to open my mouth to argue that we thought he was dead but he cut me right off, "There is no excuse for that. You were my twin sister, we did everything together! I thought that you would have known that it wasn't my body when they showed it to you!"

I was stunned. There was so much vulnerability in his face and voice. Even his body looked vulnerable.

"I'm sorry," was all I could say. But he wasn't finished.

"You could have rescued me! But you left me to the mercy of dad! And now I'm changed. And I don't give second chances!"

"But I didn't know! I was young back then! I didn't even know what 4 times 4 was! How the hell was I suppose to notice that it wasn't you?" I yelled right back at him. He was making me feel guilty and I didn't like that.

"Mum should've known! Whatever happened to the mother's instinct? Huh? She should've noticed at the very least!"

"Why are you asking me this? Correction, why are you yelling at me for this?" I was well past the point of rage. It was unfair for Ari to yell at me but I guess he was too blonde to think about who was the right person to accuse.

"I don't know! Maybe because you're the only one I can yell at because I have no idea on where Mum is!"

I froze at those words. He didn't know where Mum was? But he was the one who took her!

"What? What happened?" Ari noticed my reaction and snapped his fingers in my face.

"You don't know where Mum is?" my voice shook a little.

"Wasn't that what I just said?" he was sarcastic now but I took no notice.

"But-but you were the one who took her!" my eyes were huge and I was so confused.

"What? Why would I take her?" Ari was also confused and we both stared at each other trying work out what the hell each other would say next.

"You don't know?" I asked incredulously.

"Know what?" he said throwing his hands up in the air exasperatingly.

"That Mum and Ella was kidnapped!" I shouted unnecessarily but I couldn't help it and I was just so annoyed. So many mysteries.

"Ok. First things first. Who the hell is Ella?" Ari asked.

"She's our younger sister, only by a year or so though," I explained.

"Right. I dont remember her. Mum and what's-her-name was kidnapped? When and where?" Ari went straight down to business.

"Well-"I got cut off by a knock on the door and Angel stuck her head in with a curious expression on her face.

"Hey. Sorry to interrupt but you two were all yelling before and then you were quiet so we thought that either one of you killed the other or you both killed each other," Angel smiled weakly and I strained to smile even though I was annoyed that I was interrupted from having a conversation with Ari, even though he was a dickhead.

"It's all cool. We were coming down in a minute. Max was just explaining the predicament that your all in," Ari said while half smiling at Angel, who was staring at him.

"Uhhum!" I cleared my throat. Ok, am I just imagining this, or is Ari trying (and failing miserably) to flirt with Angel?

Ewwww.

"What?" Ari asked turning to me with an irritated look.

"Save your flirting for another time. Angel, we'll be down soon, kk?"

"Righto, "she replied and closed the door.

"What flirting?" Ari was pretending that nothing was happening.

"The thing-oh don't worry!" I sighed and rubbed my forehead in frustration.

I'm so tired and now I've got my first migraine.

BOOM! There was a sudden loud explosion coming from the lounge room

"What the hell was that?" we both looked at each other and ran downstairs back to everyone else and saw that pizza was spread around the room and the others were laying on the carpet stunned.

"What happened?" I gasped and dodged a sticky mess of melted cheese all over the place.

"Seems like that pizza was rigged," Gazzy sat up and grabbed a wire that was poking out of a piece of salami.

"Who would do that?" Nudge asked her eyes wide.

"I wonder," I glanced up at Jeb who was wiping off gross parts of pizza from his clothes with a disgusted look on his face.

"Whaddya mean by that?" Iggy actually looked pleased. He was smiling away merrily.

Oh, yeah. I forgot. He and Gazzy love bombs and anything that goes BOOM! Maybe it was something with new technology by the way he looks at it interestingly.

"Nothing. I mean. I just think it's a coincidence that first, mum an Ella has been kidnapped and now some tried to (unsuccessfully) blow us up. Maybe there's a chance that someone big wants my family/us, dead." I tried to explain, covering up from my slip up.

"Yeah, someone big like the pizza company's mascot, Mario the Cow," Gazzy joked.

I shook my head at him and cracked a small grin, "No comical timing at all,"

"Pfft, there's always time to joke,"

"Guys!" Jeb went off.

I jumped. So did everyone else.

"I don't think," he began.

"Oh here we go," Iggy nudged and whispered to me. "He doesn't think."

I snorted. "We all know that,"

He gave both of us death glares and we shut up.

"I don't think that finding Valencia and Ella would be to shout and joke around. This is a very serious thing and you all need to grow up and become responsible," he went on.

"We all need to settle down and think rationally. Don't you think?"

"It's alright for you to say. You know rationally means." Gazzy said.

"Don't you know what rationally means?" Jeb couldn't believe it.

"Nope," Gazzy made the popped the 'p'.

"What do they teach you at school these days?"

"Oh I'm sure they've taught us what that word means. I also know for a fact that I never listen when teachers are talking," Gazzy explained.

"That would explain your dumbness than," Nudge stated.

"Ummm, yeah. I think so."

"Ok ok! Rationally means to be open, fair about it," Jeb explained.

"Oh," was all Gazzy could say. I could just imagine his tiny little brain processing the information.

"So what are we going to do about it all?" Fang stepped in after being so silent. This is typically like him to do that.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to hit the sack," Ari said walking towards the front door.

"That's good, because you nearly overstayed your welcome," I said walking behind him and was just about to close the door when he turned around and winked at me. It was like we were playing a game and he just wanted to reassure me that he was still on my side.

"Bye guys," he waved to everyone else and they all raised their hands in reply.

"Ok." I said and slammed the door in his face.

"I think going to bed is a good thing to do. We've overworked our brains today and sleeping will do the job so we can wake up fresh in the morning," Angel agreed and everyone else chorused their approval too.

"Yeah that's a good idea. I'm going home, but I'll be around tomorrow morning again." Fang said and came up to me and gave me a big, warm hug.

There were choruses of "Nawwws," and "That's so cute," going around the room but we ignored them.

I was just too busy focusing basking in Fangs presence and that he was enveloping me into a big hug.

It settled me down. Kept me from wanting to scream out my frustrations and confusion. I know that it's weird to say this but I think I rely on him now.

"Uh hum!" Jeb cleared his throat and I jumped.

I had completely forgotten that he was still here, watching all of this.

I think Fang raised his head to glare at Jeb but I don't know, I was busy breathing in his sexy, musky scent.

"Love you," he whispered into my ear and peeled my arms from around his body.

I reluctantly let go and smiled at him.

He walked away and out the front door.

His absence made my heart heavy but I tried to push it out of the way.

"So, we're all going to bed?" I asked brightly and saw that everyone was staring at me.

I blushed bright red and attempted (but failed miserably) to cover it up.

Damn face giving away my emotions! If only they were physically there, they wouldn't be red. They would be black and blue from the beating they would've taken.

"Can you please stop staring at me like I'm a clown?" I snapped and they instantly looked away.

I sighed. This isn't going to be easy.

"Are we all going to bed or what?" I repeated, rubbing my forehead tiredly.

"Yeah!" everyone said and we all grinned at each other.

"So it's decided!" I said and smiled at them all.

We all trudged upstairs to my room and fell straight on the beds and sleeping bags.

I swear I was out of it before I hit the sack.

**Sorry for the really short chapter guys! I promise the next one will be better! And remember..R&R!**

**XxX**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys! Thanks so much for all your support! I was sitting down with my laptop and I couldn't believe all the support that I have gotten from all of you guys! This is my first fanfiction story and I can't believe that it's going so great!**

**Please excuse the flaws in it though. I know I said they lived in Australia then it went to New York. Just, whenever I right stuff like that, think of what I said on the first time.**

**Thanks and keep reviewing! :D**

Chapter 10

In the morning I got woken up rather rudely.

By Nudge of course. And Angel.

"Come on Max! There's breakfast downstairs! Wake up!" Nudge whined and they both shook me hard.

It only made me more reluctant to stay in bed. I grabbed my doona and pulled it until it covered all of me; including my head.

"No! Go away you terrorists!" I yelled from under the covers and tried to go back to sleep.

"We're not terrorists! We're just waking you up!" Nudge said and they both tried and failed to pull the doona off of me.

I clung to it like it was my last thread of my life. And I wasn't letting go for a _long_ time soon.

I had the muscles and enough annoyance to make the doona barely budge from their grasps.

I had to admit, I guess they scored a point for at least trying.

"If you don't leave me alone I'm gonna call the cops on you!" I threatened and was promptly pulled off the bed and I landed with a loud THUD on the cold, hard, wooden floor.

"Ow!" I whined and tried to get up, with the doona still in my hand.

"Since when has waking up someone been a crime?" Angel asked and I got a good look at both of them. Angel's hair was messily spread out from her ponytail and Nudge frizz ball of hair was even more frizzy and wild than ever.

"Since the first time anyone tried to wake me up," I retorted and they let go of me, finally assured that I was well and truly awake.

I stood up and shivered from the sudden cold air that hit once I slipped away from the doona.

"That means your mum should be in jail because of the many times she's had to wake you up then," Angel said and I glared at her.

"That would be correct."

"Huh," was all she said while looking at me strangely.

_Nice to see you up Maximum._

I groaned. Great, the Voice was back to visit.

_What do you want now?_ I asked tiredly.

_Nothing. Why can't I just talk to my favourite person?_ Voice asked.

I ignored him and looked at Nudge and Angel.

"So what's so important that you had to wake me up at...?" I glanced at the clock and nearly went spazz. "Ten fucking minutes to eleven? Are you _fucking_ serious? Or are you both mentally unstable? Who in their right mind would wake up at this time in the fucking morning?"

They calmly waited for me to settle down and I did.

I took a deep breath in and ran my hand through my messy, knotty hair.

"So" I sighed.

"Done?" Angel asked with one eyebrow up.

"Yeah," I said sheepishly but I refused to say sorry.

"Ok. We need to go downstairs because Fangs there. And we need to come up with a plan." Nudge informed me.

"Why do we need to come up with a plan?" I asked confused.

Nudge sighed and Angel said patiently to me," Because remember what happened to your Mum and Ella? We need to figure out how to rescue them."

Yesterdays horrible events came crashing down on me and I felt suddenly sick for joking about Mum when she was in a horrible situation. I sat down on the floor suddenly and I really wanted to go back to bed.

I covered my head with my hands and closed my eyes.

Mum. Ella. Kidnapped. Crap.

"Uh hello? Earth to Max?" Angel snapped her fingers in front of my face when I had been sitting on the floor for too long.

"Whaa-? Oh yeah. Sorry guys. Lemme get changed." I got up slowly and they started to walk out of the room.

"Oh! And Max," Angel paused suddenly and turned towards me again.

"Yeah?" I asked mentally sighing in annoyance.

"Ari-or should I say Kallum is downstairs and Jeb and Iggy are trying to explain everything to him. As well as the situation where he is no longer who he was yesterday."

"Oh great! I'll just add that to the growing list of Things That Need to Be Done _Today_." I said sarcastically.

"Um yeah." Nudge said and they both quickly scuttled out of the room before I was about to chuck things around-but not before giving me sympathetic smiles.

That only made me pissed.

I don't want their damn sympathies or pity smiles! I don't know what I want!

I sighed and looked around my room.

Time to get ready to face the pain in the ass masses downstairs.

I slowly shuffled to my wardrobe and pulled out the first pair of skinny jeans and a t-shirt with a hoodie I came into contact with.

I then started the procedure to smell nice.

After I had done that I walked downstairs slowly and saw that everyone had gathered around sitting at the table like a conference.

Everyone must've heard me coming because they all looked up and I saw the relief and betrayal on Kallums face.

I saw with a jolt that Fang was there. JJ was also there, though she had the look of understanding on her face like she knew what I was feeling.

And she did.

Her brother Jeff was in a gang and his best friend-who was also the leader-had a crush n JJ and told her to join their mob. But JJ refused and he got his revenge by kidnapping her parents and torturing them for eight months until JJ finally gathered up the courage to face him. And she kicked his ass.

He let her parents go and ran off somewhere screaming like a scared little girl.

And damn! Did he shriek and squeal like one while JJ was kicking his butt to the ground.

I walked up to the table and smiled attentively at Kallum but he pointedly looked away from me.

I sighed. I guess I deserve that.

"How are you feeling today?" Jeb was the first to speak up.

"So so." I didn't want to say anything longer than one sentence to him.

He was still on my bad list. But I'm not quite sure if it was his fault that they were kidnapped.

"So we've explained to JJ what happened and Kallum the situation and he understand completely _don't you?_" Iggy said eyeballing Kallum daring him to speak against him.

"Yeah. I guess I do." he muttered without even looking at me.

"Huh." I snorted. "That's totally convincing." I know, I know. That was completely unfair but I had just woken up to another stress filled day and he wasn't making matters better by being dick bout it all.

"Well how else am I supposed to react? I was told five minutes ago that my real name is Kallum and I'm adopted! Am I supposed to go 'Yay? Let's hold a celebration about it all?' No! So let me at least process everything else in my own depressed way!" he yelled at me suddenly.

I was shocked. He never yells at me.

My anger flared up and I yelled straight back at him.

"So you want a pity party? Well after all this crap is over and done with I'll hold one for you! But for now shut the hell up and quit dragging your feet!"

There was shocked silence and Kallum scraped the chair backwards and got out of it.

He then walked around the table to me and was about to raise his fist when I said in a shocked whisper, "You're going to hit me? Just coz I said the truth? Really Kallum? What has gotten into you? Your suppose to be my brother!"

He hesitated and lowered his fist.

"I'm not your brother. And you're not my sister. But your Mum is my Mum and I'm only going to stay so I can see her and say goodbye. After that the only connection I have with you is through JJ." he stepped back and went back to his chair.

The silence spread out for about six long moments and then Gazzy spoke.

"Well that was awkward."

Everyone looked at each other and we all started laughing hysterically.

"Ahhh. I needed that." I grinned wiping tears away from my eyes.

"Yeah ditto. Sorry 'bout that sis," Kallum smiled at me and I nodded.

Just the the doorbell rang and I frowned.

"Who could that be?"

I started forward to open the door but Fang held me up.

"Wait."

"What?" I asked impatiently.

The doorbell was getting louder and more frequent.

"I'm coming with you. Who knows who could be at your door." he followed me and I smiled gratefully.

But honestly though, isn't that taking a bit far? I didn't say that because I was too scared of hurting his feelings.

"Awww isn't that cute?" I heard Nudge mutter to JJ nd they both giggled.

I gritted my teeth. Those girls are seriously getting on my damn nerves.

Just like the person that I was about to open the door to.

"Ari. Surprise. Leave." I motioned to the door after he had stepped through the door and stopped at the hall table and he smiled sourly.

"No can do sis. My mum's life is on the line," he picked up a picture of me and mum smiling happily and stared at it.

"Why does it have to be that _you_ of all people are trying to play FBI?" I asked and snatched the picture off of him and put it back down.

He looked up at Fang, who was lurking in the shadows.

"What's wrong boyfriend? Scared I'm going to kidnap your girl?"

Fang smiled coldly. "Oh trust me. You can try."

"Huh? What does the mean?" Ari asked.

"She could kick your ass ten ways from Sunday and eat a choc chip cookie at the same time."

I smiled. "That is true." I added.

Ari just shot Fang and evil glare and I was beginning to suspect he didn't like him.

I pointed towards the kitchen. "That way. Now."

He held his hands up in mock surrender and moved before I could punch him.

"Hi Ari!" "Nice to see you again Ari!" "What up Ari?" greeted him when he walked into the kitchen.

I walked in and I saw Ari nodding airily at everyone.

The only people that I saw that _didn't_ say hi was Kallum and JJ. Oh and Jeb. But he's not a person so count him out.

"Well aren't you popular." I commented as I sat on the countertop.

Fang moved next to me; but only standing up.

"I guess so little sister. And if you don't like it you can go and find your own merry little group of friends." he replied smartly.

Little did he know that I was a champion when it comes to being a smart ass.

"Hey. Leave the sarcasm to the professionals."

"Why don't you."

"Well I can't see a trophy that says 'Ari Martinez-Sarcasm Professional'"

"Neither can I with you."

"I don't need one."

"Sure."

"But if you _really_ want some proof come a bit closer and I'll show you."

I turned around like I was looking for something on the kitchen cupboard. And _of course_ dimwit came up to me.

I whirled around in lighting speed and smashed my hand to his nose.

"Ow. Mother of Jesus! You broke my fucking nose. You son-of-a-bitch!"

"Uh uh uh!" I waggled my finger. "No swearing in front the baby. Oh wait! _You're_ the baby!"

There were snorts of laughter from Iggy and Gazzy but I saw that Angel was looking at me with a disproving glare. Hmmm...

"Hahaha that was _so _funny." Ari said sarcastically clutching his nose.

His nose was starting to bleed and Angel got up and gave him a tissue.

"Thanks babe." he thanked and Angel just bit her lip.

I shrugged. "It's my nature to be funny."

"Whatever."

"Guys." Angel interrupted. "This isn't helping anything."

"Just a minute babe." Ari said.

Did _he _just call _Angel_ 'babe'? And she hasn't even told him to not call her that the first time.

I am definitely suspicious.

Ari sauntered up to Kallum and looked him up and down slowly.

"So you're the replacement." he didn't ask-he said.

"Yeah. _Your _replacement." Kallum said copying with the looking and up and down slowly thing.

"Huh." was all Ari said but I knew that he was going to bite Kallums head off.

But Kallum bet him to it.

"You know, you seem like a total asshole." Kallum commented.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You think your all cool and everything. But you're not."

"Really?" Ari repeated.

"Uh huh. So what's your excuse? Tormented when you were younger? Bullied even? Or maybe an abusive girlfriend?"

"Maybe." uh oh.

When Ari starts replying with one word then that's not good.

And I was proved right.

Ari suddenly moved to punch him but Kallum had disappeared.

Only when he laughed did we notice that he was sitting next to JJ with a big grin on his face.

"Huh?" Ari growled and swung around.

"You snooze you lose I guess," Kallum smiled and shrugged.

"I would watch your mouth _Kallum_," Ari spat out his name.

"Watch yours,"

"How did you dodge me?"

I laughed and said, "He lives with me. I beat him up all the time. Of course gradually over time he learnt to dodge and hit back."

Ari just glared at me and crossed his arms.

I smirked. Yeah, didn't expect to be beaten by your replacement now did you?

"I can't believe that Valencia and Ella have been kidnapped and all you kids do is fight amongst yourselves! And it's not helping!" Jeb said exasperatly.

Ok, I _think_ we might be pissing him off just a _little_ bit.

"Whatever old man." I said and started digging around the kitchen for something to eat.

I had only just realised that I was starving five minutes ago.

"Don't call me old man! Its father to you!"

"Whatever old man." I repeated just to pee him off.

He growled in frustration and ran a hand through his hair.

"So where do we start?" JJ asked.

"Well, Valencia and Ella were spotted at a supermarket the last time they've been seen so I'll go over there and see what I find. I'll also get her car and bring it around here." Jeb explained.

Oh hell no.

"Uh uh! _I'll_ go with Fang and Ari there and you can supervise _unless_ you don't want me to find something. So that proves that you know something." I cut him before he could protest.

"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, baffled.

"Let me explain in twenty three words or less. You show up and everything's cool. Until the next day when mum and Ella gets kidnapped. Then Ari shows up from the dead." I explained sarcastically.

"Are you saying that you think _I'm_ the kidnapper? And that I staged all of this?" Jeb asked, his eyes popping out of his head.

"No. You brought that into this conversation yourself. I only merely pointed out that something doesn't add up." I said smartly.

Everyone watched with wide eyes.

I saw Jebs face turn red then an ugly shade of purple.

I felt something touch me on my back when I heard Ari whisper in my ear, "I wouldn't piss him off. His wrath is mean."

I wrenched my gaze from Jebs and settled it on Ari's.

"I don't care. If it's for mum and Ella, then I'll deal."

I grabbed Fangs hand and motioned for Ari to follow me as I started walking.

I started to head out down the hall when Jeb called out, "What am I suppose to do? Babysit?"

"No." I called back over my shoulder as I opened the front door. "I wouldn't trust you to look after my friends. You can do the housework." and the front door slammed and silenced his reply.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Ari, Fang and I circled the shopping centres car park about ten times before we even found Mums black VW Bug 1967.

"Bloody hell. If I knew mums car was so friggin popular I wouldn't have let her get that car. Or I should've at least told her to get a different colour like pink or orange." I muttered.

Ari sniggered.

"What's wrong ugly?"I asked, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious as we walked closer to the car.

"Nothing. I just looked at your face." he shot back and Fang growled.

"Shut up _now_!"

"Awww, big bad boyfriend's defending you. That proves you're not capable to fight for yourself."

"Ari. If you don't shut the fuck up you're going to find that you have nothing to defend yourself _with_." I advised and he shut his mouth.

Fang grinned a little bit and I slid the car key into the lock and unlocked the doors.

The locks swung up with a _click._

"Ok. Heres the plan. Fang, you can drive the car back and Ari and I will search this place for clues."

"No." was all Fang said.

"What? What do you mean by 'no'?" I asked confused.

"Exactly that. No." Fang replied.

"Please explain boyfriend because I'm in a rush here." Ari said impatiently

"One: Don't call me boyfriend. My names Fang. Two: Why are you in a rush?" Fang asked coolly.

"Keep it to yourself boyfriend. I do have a personal life you know. I might just possibly have a girlfriend who's waiting for me somewhere." Ari said.

I snorted. "I happen to know that you don't have a girlfriend."

"And how do you know that Max?" he asked turning to me and smiled coldly.

"Your face. No one would want to date that face. Especially when it has scars on it." I explained.

"What if she doesn't date me for my face? It could be my body." he suggested.

"I highly doubt it."

"Can we please quit this now?" Fang interrupted.

"I suppose so." I replied but not after I shot a glare to Ari.

"Anyway. Back to the point. I'm not going to drive the car back. Because I don't trust brother over here." Fang jerked his chin to Ari.

"Then it's safe to say that we have a _one and only_ mutual feeling." Ari retorted.

"Shush!" I shushed Ari and turned back to Fang.

"Fang. I've known mum ever since I was born. So has Ari. You haven't even met her. This is personal for me and it's also very dangerous. It's a family thing and I don't want the guilt that you died for my family if things turn bad." I tried to explain softly to Fang.

"Translate: Listen to her or fuck the hell off." Ari grinned coldly.

I think smiling coldly is his thing.

"How about listen to your own advice _brother_." Fang shot back and turned to me.

"If you don't want me to help you, you can just say."

"No! It's just that I don't want you to do anything dangerous with us." I said quickly.

Of course I want him to help me. God! If only he could see that I needed him to be safe.

"Which means that you don't want me to do anything." fang said and shook his head. "Don't worry. I'm going to take the car back to your house and then I'm just going to go home. I'll see you soon." he said and took the keys and got into the car and drove away.

I was desperate. I didn't want him to leave like this.

"Wait! Fang!" I yelled and ran up to the car but he just kept going.

I stood there hopelessly on the road.

Cars beeped from behind me and I quickly got out of they're way. The drivers shook their heads at me while they drove past but I ignored them

I glared at Ari accusingly and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't look at me. I didn't do anything."

"No. You opened your big mouth and _said_ something." I said and sighed. "Listen. You cover this area and I'll go and find the place that has the security cameras and watch the video tape. After you've finished come and show me what you've found or just come and find me if you haven't." I said tiredly and walked away slowly to the shopping doors.

"Wait! Max." Ari reached out and grabbed my arm.

I stared down at it and only just realised that, since I was wearing a t-shirt, his skin colour looked exactly like mine.

He pulled his arm back self-consciously after he realised that I was staring at his arm.

"Um," he cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, you know. For everything. I don't go along well with people."

"I know. But you fit right in with mutts." I said and walked away, leaving him stunned.

I stood in front of the billion tiny screens watching the tape that showed my mom.

"- this button does this and this one stops the video. Got it?" the big security guard said, looking at me expectantly.

"Yeah. Thanks, Kevin," I read his name tag and smiled up at him.

He nodded and walked out, leaving me alone to do my thing.

I sat down in the big black comfy wheelie chair and pushed the recorded tape into the video player.

I pressed play and sat forward when Mum came into view.

She was pushing the shopping trolley towards the car and Ella was carting the bags on her arm.

Mum turned around to Ella and said something and Ella shook her head.

Mum shrugged and turned around and disappeared from view to open the boot.

Ella trudged up and then Mum came back around to the front.

That was when suddenly she disappeared for the second time.

Ella turned around and I could the lines on her forehead crinkled like she was frowning.

She walked to where mum had been and disappeared suddenly. Like magic.

I sat there, stunned. I couldn't believe it.

I had no idea how the hell they could've disappeared so fast.

Knock Knock!

Someone was tapping mildly on the door.

"Come in!" I said my voice kind of shaky.

Kevin the security guard stuck his head in and said, "There's this boy called Ari saying that he has to see you and that he's your brother."

I nodded my head. "Yeah he is. Bring him in, and shut the door behind you please."

Ok I wasn't bossing him around, I added the _please_. That makes it more like a request.

Ari sidled around Kevin in the doorway and gave him a dirty look before shutting the door in his face.

"You know, you should be more polite," I said disapprovingly.

"Tell _him_ that. He basically nearly picked me up from my head and chucked me out when I mentioned your name. I swear he's either got a crush on you or you told him that everything your doing in here is top secret." Ari retorted.

I snorted and let it go.

"So what have you found?" he asked coming up to me and leaning against the bench.

"Nothing. All I saw was mum and Ella disappearing at the same place. Here watch it. And keep an eye out for a blonde guy anywhere in the tape." I said and switched it on again.

We sat there in silence and I noticed the second time that there was a little black mark next to the tyre.

"Well," Ari said finally after the video had finished.

"Yeah. Get anything?" I asked.

"Nope. No blonde guy. Why did you ask to look for a blonde guy?"

"Because Jeb said that on the tape that some blonde dude walked past mum and Ella and they went somewhere." I explained frowning.

"Uh..." Ari said with one eyebrow.

"Does he lie to you?" I swung around to him.

"Yeah. It's his thing. He taught it's safer to lie most of the time."

"Well there you go. He's keeping something from us then." I said and stood up.

"Whoa! Don't think about confronting him about it! Believe it or not, he's dangerous! And when he gets defensive it won't end well for you!" Ari warned and looked at me.

"I don't care. Neither should you, its Mum Ari. And Ella." I said in a small voice.

"Three things. One: I don't know Ella so why should she matter to me? Two: I _do_ care because I don't want to end up dead or dying. Three: Mum basically betrayed me. She should've known I was still alive."

"Ok ok. But still, I'm your twin sister; you should know you have to help me." I pleaded.

"I don't know," he said hesitantly.

"Please! I can't do it alone!"

"You've got boyfriend to help you!"

"No. He'll end up dead. And I don't want that to happen to him."

"And you do for me?" He said.

"What? No! It's just that I know I can depend on you! We're twins! We should know basically each other's next decisions! This would come handy when we're in a fight!" I argued.

He breathed heavily through his nose.

"The only reason I'm stuck in this mess is because of Jeb. I came to kidnap you. He needed you and someone else that I can't remember to do some experimenting. I tried but your making it impossible. He said if I fail by the next month, he will make my expiration date closer than what it truly is."

"What? He needed me and someone else? For experimenting? And what's your expiration date? What the hell is it?" I asked baffled.

"Don't worry."

"No tell me!" I persuaded.

"No. Leave it alone."

"Please! Ari you know me!"

"I said leave it the fuck alone Max!" he shouted.

"Well _I _said tell me!"

"It means that he controls when my death date is! Ok? He's going to kill me four years before I was actually intended to die!" he shouted, tears starting to fall down his face.

I was shell shocked.

"What?" I whispered so softly I was surprised that he heard me I n the first place.

"Yeah. It all depends on my mission." he said sadly.

"So you mean, like, like, he's got the power to say when you die?" I asked, completely shocked.

"Yeah."

"But you can't do that to humans! They have their own life span!"

"I'm not human Max. You noticed that when we first met again. Remember?" he said softly.

"What are you then?" I asked taking a step backwards.

"Don't be scared of me. I'm still a little bit human." he said reaching out to me.

"What are you?" I repeated, slowly backing out.

He sighed and looked away with a distant look in his eyes.

"I said, _what the hell are you?_" my voice rose about ten thousand decibels higher.

"I'm fucking half wolf! Ok? I'm half mutt!" he said.

Once again, I should have known when to stop asking questions.

"What? So all those jokes about you smelling like dog and you get along with them is basically half true?" I asked, trying to process all the information.

"Yeah. And id appreciate if you could let it go for a while." he replied, and gave me a half smile. "But I'm still your brother. And I don't want to hand you in."

I nodded gratefully. "Thanks Ari. Sorry for pressuring you for everything."

"It's all cool. You needed to know soon anyways." he shrugged.

"So...All I'm getting from all that mind lowing information is that basically Jeb is God to you-because he can say for you to die and you die-and that he turned you into a frickin dog." I said.

"That's putting it into long story short."

"Ok then." I sighed and sat down, only to jump back up when the door knocked.

"Who is it?" I called out warily.

I caught Ari's eye and he nodded to me.

We walked to each other's sides and turned to face the door.

"Relax, it's just me." Kevin called out from behind the door.

"Who's me?" Ari called out, even though he knew.

But it's good to be on the safe side.

"Kevin the security guard." he replied. His voice was muffled from the door.

I relaxed, only a little but though.

"Come on in!" I invited.

The door opened slowly and Kevin came with his hands kind of raised in surrender.

"I was only just wondering if everything was alright. I heard shouting and thought that someone was killing someone." he joked.

He was met to silence.

I didn't appreciate his humour and I don't think Ari did either, by the way he responded like me.

"God, lighten up! The suns shinin' and the wars over!" he joked again and I rolled my eyes.

I grabbed the tape after ejecting it out and placed it under my arm.

"Well," I said, grabbing Ari's shoulder and steering him towards the door, "Thanks for your time and the tape Kev. We'll be goin now."

"What? So soon? I thought you and me could have coffee at this place I know down the joint." he said.

He could be a little bit less hopeful.

"Listen Kev, you and me...it's not gonna happen. How do I put this? Well, I've got a boyfriend." I smiled at him and escaped with Ari.

"See ya big man!" Ari called out sarcastically while I dragged him away.

"I told you he had a crush on you!" Ari crowed triumphantly.

"No you didn't," I said walking out to the car park.

"Yeah I did."

"Ah no you didn't."

"Ah _yes_ I did." Ari argued.

"_No_ you didn't! You said _either_ he had a crush on me or I told him that what I was doing was top secret." I said.

"So? Same thing!" he replied and we reached the car.

I was on the passenger side so I walked around to his side which happened to be the driver's door and looked down.

"No it isn't. Either doesn't mean _yes he does_." I muttered.

Bingo! There was a gutter hole right next to the tyre.

I bent down, with Ari watching me with puzzlement.

I pulled hesitantly on the metal grate that was placed over the top of the hole.

It came off easily, with only a squeak of protest.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ari asked.

"When you watched the tape, did you see a black space next to the tyre?" I asked not looking at him.

"Yeah why?"

"Mum disappeared right where she had stepped, which was right here," I said.

"Oh," was all he said.

I wanted to jump down but my estimate was that it was about ten feet deep and I didn't have a torch.

"Do you have a torch on you?" I asked.

"Nope." he answered.

"What about rope?"

"Oh yeah! Let me just get it from my bag! No! I don't carry stuff like that with me when I'm on my day off," Ari said sarcastically.

"You don't work."

"I know I don't. It's called sarcasm." Ari rolled his eyes.

"Well can you please hold it? I'm trying to be serious and your 'sarcasm' isn't helping." I said peering down into the tunnel of darkness.

"What's so suspicious about this?" Ari asked bending down to join me in examining the tunnel.

"Mum stepped on top of this and suddenly vanished." I said.

"Ah, I don't follow," God Ari was slow.

"Are you normally this dumb? Or is this a onetime thing?" I asked.

"No."

"No? So you're normally this dumb?" I asked sweetly.

"Ye-NO! I mean, I'm not either. I'm actually quite smart for a person like me." Ari said proudly.

"That's convenient considering you're the only dog/person around. So really you could be quite dumb." I muttered under my breath.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing. I just said of course you're quite smart." I said hurriedly.

Ari glared at me suspiciously and I shrugged apologetically.

"So what's with Mum and the creepy hole?" Ari asked, switching back to the subject.

I snorted, "Only you would be scared of a hole."

He ignored my comment and waited for me to answer properly.

"Alright, alright! She stepped on the hole, then someone must've pulled the grate top off and grabbed her when her foot was still there and dragged her down." I explained.

"Oh..." Ari said.

I don't think I could believe that he didn't get it until just then.

I mean, we basically have the same brain molecules, after we _are_ twins.

"Come on," I shook my head amused, "Let's get home."

I opened the driver's door while he walked around to the other side saying, "Where boyfriend is sulking. I wonder how he's taking that you think I'm better. And that you practically ordered him away like he was a dog."

I slammed the door after I had hopped in.

"I do _not_ think your better. And I didn't order him away!"

"Ah, technically, your actually did." Ari said getting into the passenger side.

"All I did was ask him to go home. _Asked_ him. Read my lips: _Asked him_." I said turning the engine reversed slowly out while looking in the rear view mirror.

"That's basically the same." Ari settled his feet on top of the dashboard.

"No its not. And get your feet off the dashboard." I let go with one hand and slapped his foot. Hard.

"Oi! You didn't have to slap me!" he moved his down fast and yelled.

"Don't you have any respect for vintage cars?" I asked mucking around.

"Oh this is what you call this old piece of crap? _Vintage?_" Ari asked.

"Do you have any idea how much this 'old piece of crap'" I added the quotation marks when I said them words, "costs?"

"No! Why would I?"

"Then you're not getting it when mum passes on!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Ari crossed his arms on his chest and pursed his lips grumpily.

I kept my eyes on the road for about twelve seconds and burst out laughing.

Ari joined in and I really badly wanted to clutch my stomach but I couldn't.

"Don't lose focus on the road Maximum! I'll be sorely missed if I die!" Ari warned.

"Yeah whatever. Wake up little boy." I said but kept my eyes on the road and smiled.

**A/N Hello! Sorry this was waaayyyy too long but once I started, I couldn't stop! I was trying to figure out when is the best time to end this chapter and well, it took me forever to stop! So...You know the drill. R&R! And can you completely ignore the spelling mistakes! I couldn't figure out how to spell some words because my laptop dictionary is saying this is how you spell such and such (that's an example by the way) but it just doesn't feel right or look right so I leave it how I think is right. Of course you should never trust me when it comes to spelling and meanings! I'm going to try to update nearly every week but I have crap to do but believe me, writing this story for fanfiction trumps everything else. Well, apart from re-reading Maximum Ride series for the tenth time already. So thanks everyone for all your support and I know this is a long note too. I'm going now. But one more thing-nah just tricking. Bye!**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I pulled up in the driveway with butterflies in my stomach. I had to face Fang. _If_ Fang was at home.

Ari must've read my mind because he said, "I'm sure boyfriend is waiting inside for you . . . Or not."

I sighed. As if I had time for sarcasm. "Ari, shut up. Ok?"

I was a bit peed off at Fang, and I'm sure he was likewise.

"I was just saying,"

"No. Give it a rest." I cut in and hopped out of my car. Ari did the same and he looked at me over the roof with what, oh my, is that a _sympathetic smile?_ No. It's just me imagining things. That was normal.

"Hey, better you than me," he raised his hands in surrender and smirked which made me want to smash his face so badly.

I didn't reply except of slamming my door and marching up the gravel driveway to the front door. Ari followed me of course but my mind was set on ignoring him.

I walked in and saw everyone congregating in the lounge room.

"Hello?" I called out, dumping my set of keys on the hallway table and peering around the doorway.

"Hey!" Nudge leapt off Iggy's lap and walked towards me. "Find anything?"

I looked around, and saw everyone bar Fang was in here. "Ah, yeah. Hey has Fang come back yet?" I asked and saw everyone's face fall.

"No. Was suppose to be on his way?" Gazzy asked. I noticed he wasn't too impressed by the sudden affection that was shared between Nudge and Iggy but I didn't pay that much attention when my stomach was too busy falling into the ground.

"Yeah. I sent him here like, an hour ago."

"In a mood." Ari added and I swung around and glared at him.

"Don't you have a personal life you said you needed to attend to?"

"Yes I do, but you know what they say, family comes before friends." Ari mock grinned and sat down on the chair in the corner.

"You don't have any friends. And I'm going to kill you the next time you merely point out I'm family," I said and turned back to my friends. Angel was looking amused but I felt anything but that.

"Where's Jeb?" I barked out.

Everyone jumped and Iggy stammered out, "We-we don't know. He kinda –j-just left saying that h-he was going down the street to get some food."

"O-oh r-re-really?" I copied and shook my head in despair. "Great. Now he's got Fang to add in his special little collection. Next it's going to be someone else. And then other! Oh I give up!" I threw up my hands and stomped off, leaving silence in my wake.

"Max?" Nudge said attentively to me as I stared out of the attic window.

I ignored her.

"Max?" she tried again. Still no answer.

"Max!" she whispered/shouted.

"WHAT?" I yelled swinging around to give her glare. She jumped and shrieked then covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide open.

"I only just wanted to ask if you wanted a cup of coffee or something, you know refreshments. Jeb has arrived and he said he found your mums car on the corner of our street but it was abandoned and-"

"Nudge, SHUT THE HELL UP!" I said dangerously and stomped downstairs, leaving Nudge in the attic stunned and probably with her feelings hurt. But I didn't care. Jeb was home. And it was time he confessed some strange stuff he's been doing. Funny how it always seems to be my own flesh and blood that betrays me.

I walked into the room and saw Jeb staring out the window with a strange look on his face. Hopefully worry.

He turned when he noticed I was standing in the doorway and I saw wrinkles appearing on his face.

_Good_, a thought echoed in my mind. _He should be worried about your reaction._

Great to hear from you again, I said vehemently to Voice.

_Isn't it always?_ Then it disappeared.

"Max." Jeb said nervously, fiddling with the strayed ends of the creamy pink curtains that Mum had bought almost three months ago.

_-Flashback_-

"Mum! I'm home!" I called out when I walked through the door after school one day.

"Max? Come in here!" Mum's voice came from the lounge room so I followed it.

"Yeah? What's wrong?" I asked and saw that mum was perched precariously on the arm of a chair, trying to hang up some curtains on the window. "Mum! Be careful!" I rushed towards her and steadied her before she fell over.

"Ah thanks Maxie! Lemme finish hanging these up." mum said and finished looping the last end into the hook. "Ah now aren't those pretty?' Mum said satisfied, getting down slowly off the chair and standing back with her arms folded.

"Pretty?" I said doubtfully, staring at the colour. It was _disturbing_.

"Yeah. I picked the colours myself." mum said proudly studying her handiwork.

"Uh, Mum, sorry to break it to you but I think your colour blind."

"What? Why? What's wrong with the colour?" mum said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Everything! Its vomit! It looks like Cousin Ryan came over and spewed up everywhere!" I grinned.

Ryan was mums sisters son and the last time he came over was when it was my eighth birthday and he spewed all over my birthday cake. I had climbed over to him and punched him in the nose.

"Hey! The colours not that bad!" Mum protested feebly.

"Whatever you say mum." I smiled and walked away. That night Mum had pulled them down and put them back up again three times. All the times that she had hung them up again she said that they added colour to the house. Of course Ella and I were nearly on the floor laughing so hard when our next door neighbour came over and asked in a horrified expression if one of us kids had an accident and whether mum feed us strawberry ice cream.

_-End of Flashback-_

"Jeb, jeb, jeb. Always deceiving someone." I shook my head disapprovingly like a disappointed adult. He walked towards me with a pleading look.

"I didn't do it! I swear! I wasn't the one who took your mother and Ella!" he tried to sound sincere but failed. I saw in his expression somewhere a glint of slyness and that put me right off.

"Lies." I hissed and raised my hand and slapped his face with a resounding SLAP! His head whipped sidewards and my hand print was printed clearly on his right cheek.

"Whaa-?" he coughed and tried again. "How dare you slap me!" he said, trying to sound like a toughie.

"That's right," I hissed, "I _dare_."

"Listen young lady!" he said lifting his hand up but before he could do anything I had kicked his legs from out between him and he fell to the floor with a thud in a flash.

I laughed a cold, terrible laugh and said in an equally cold and terrible voice to match. "No. You listen old man. You go back to where you come from and send back my family. Because," I leant down and hissed in his ear dangerously, "I will come out and hunt you down and your boss and everyone involved and I will make sure that you pay for everything that you've done. If anyone in my family or Fang has been hurt by one mere scratch or bruise than your all going to wish you weren't born. _I can promise you that_."

I stood up and stared down coldly at Jeb, who was struggling to get back up off the carpeted floor. Loud footsteps came into the room and I turned to see all my friends and Ari staring at me panting with large wide eyed expressions. Clearly trying to in everything that was unfolding in front of them.

"What's happening here?" Ari asked, stunned. Angel walked forward and frowned at Jeb.

"Your full of anger." she stated and I was about to laugh.

"We're all full of that." I assured her. She ignored me and kept on staring at Jeb.

"You will show me come respect!" jeb yelled as he got off the floor and dusted himself off.

"Respect." my lip curled as I said that word. "You don't even know what that word means, so don't use it." I pushed past my bewildered friends and stalked out of the room and into mum's room where I fell to the floor and wept.

I wept for my mum and for Ella. I wept for Fang and for not telling him I loved him and that I wished he didn't get dragged through all of this. I wept for Ari, for becoming a monster that he never wanted to become. For being taken away from his family, from me, without knowing the true feeling of love. But most of all, I wept for my dad. I wished I had him back, before he had been offered the job. Before he had taken the offer. Before he became a mad, power hungry, evil scientist. I just wanted him to be like any other dad. A fire-fighter or a business man.

I found one of mum's Afghans on the floor and I pulled that tight around my shoulders and layed down on the ground and fell asleep with miserable tears still streaming down my face.

That's how Nudge found me, curled up in ball.

"Max," she whispered softly in my ear, jerking me back to reality.

"Wha-?" I mumbled, and sat up shivering. I looked around and saw that Gazzy and Iggy were standing on the doorway, their faces filled with understanding.

"Max? Come on. Let's get you to bed." Nudge helped me up since I was practically useless getting my limbs to work for me. I stumbled all the way, protesting weakly that I was fine but oh no, they didn't believe me.

Of course as proof that god had something against me, I walked past a mirror hanging of the wall and saw myself all messed up. And that shut me right up.

"What time is it?" I asked numbly, taking the stairs one at a time, with my friends behind me ready to catch if I took one step wrong.

"Ten past three." Nudge answered softly, keeping a firm arm around my shoulders like a bodyguard.

"In the morning?" I said horrified. I couldn't possibly have slept for more then, _twelve_ hours.

"No," Nudge laughed despite the situation. "The afternoon. You went to sleep and hour ago or something like that."

I reached the top of the stairs and sighed with relief. Not because I had gotten past the first obstacle, but because there was still time to do some digging. Digging in the family closet maybe? Maybe there were a few skeletons in the closet that needed to be uncovered and dusted?

"Then I'm fine." I said, trying to stand up by myself. Nudge let go of me hesitantly, unsure whether I could continue on by myself.

'Max I don't think-"Gazzy began but I didn't want to hear it.

"I'm cool. I just don't want to waste precious time on sleeping. It's not night for gods sakes, that's the time when we sleep."

_That's right Max, tell them how it is,_ voice arrived.

I'll tell _you_ how it is, I thought savagely.

_Tut tut, come now Max, no wasting precious daytime arguing with someone and creating a problem, _voice said and I could just picture it smiling smugly.

Oh. Well if that _someone_ hadn't appeared and _created_ a problem then maybe I wouldn't have to 'come now' I said sarcastically.

No reply.

Typical. Show up for a fight and when it loses, it disappears. What a coward.

_I heard that!_

Good!

"Max," Angels soothing voice cut in my inner babble. "Maybe it might be a good idea for you to go to bed. It's been a rough day."

Of course. That sounds reasonable. As she usually does. Maybe I should go to bed . . . No! Must. Not. Go. To. Sleep! Must go and search for clues. _Again._

"Nuh uh," I shook my head stubbornly, as if to shake out the latest ideas that didn't sound right to me.

"Come on Max. You're tired." Oh great Gazzy was joining in.

"No! I'm not going to bed! I need to do something! Plus, I just need some quality time with the bathroom. You know, _the bath._" I smiled at the boys faces when I said the last two words. Their faces turned white and I saw they were edging away from me slowly.

"Uh, ha. That sounds like a great idea. How about you girls all do your thing and Iggs and I," Gazzy bolted nervously down the stairs with Iggy right behind him, "We'll be downstairs with daddy duty,"

I snorted. "Boys just don't now the meaning of hygiene."

Nudge and Angel nodded their heads along with me, finally agreeing with me for the first time today.

"So are you sure your fine?" Nudge asked again uncertain that I could continue on without assistance.

"I'm fine! I'm not a bloody china doll that's gonna break as soon as there's any sign of a meltdown!" I threw up my hands and walked into my room. Nudge and angel followed.

"So what clues did you find?" Nudge asked, wisely staying off the path of the road we had just taken.

"I'll explain when everyone's around." I pulled off my top unashamedly and began to loosen my belt. I mean come on, room full of girls. Unless you were a boy, there was no problem stripping right in the middle of the room.

Nudge sat down on the corner of my bed and Angel sat on the floor, in a position that looked like yoga.

"Uh, what are you doing?" I eyed her, watching as she placed her feet in an uncomfortable position. One leg was folded over the opposite thigh and the same with the other one.

"I'm meditating. After that I'm going to do some digging in Jebs mind, see if there's any information that's floating around." she answered coolly, without opening her eyes or moving a muscle apart from her mouth.

"What are you now? Physic? Can you read minds?" I joked, pulling a towel of my naked body. I was shivering, my skin crawling with goose bumps in the air now that I was exposed.

"Yep," she replied. I studied her, not quite sure of she was kidding or not. I don't think she was.

"Can you stop staring at me? It's ruining the air." Angel requested.

"Sure thing. Would you like me to stop breathing too?" I asked sarcastically and turned to Nudge, who had a laptop balanced in between her legs and was tapping furiously at the keyboard.

"So what are you doing?"

"I'm going to do some digging around, in some records to see what's what and if there's been anything strange going lately," Nudge explained, not once lifting her eyes of the screen. It illuminated all of her face and I saw her eyes dart around frantically trying to take in what was there and then wasn't.

"Uh, how is that going to work?" I asked. Yes I was dumb but my mind was blank. It didn't want to operate properly so I just went with whatever I did and didn't get.

"Don't worry." Nudge waved me off, still keeping focus on the small screen. "Go and have your shower."

I shrugged and flounced of to the bathroom. I turned on the shower and steam rose up in the air, fogging the glass panes everywhere.

I stepped under the fountain of water and let the droplets fall down in rivers on my body as I tried to collect my thoughts.

It only helped a little bit but by the time I stepped out, about twenty minutes later when I finally saw my fingers getting wrinkled and soft, I was cool and collected, with my guard once again up and shields so I don't lose control of my emotions.

I tried to look in the mirror, but it was all fogged up from the steam and the mist so I reached out and scrubbed at it till there was enough clear view. I saw myself, a wet dripping, blonde girl, looking pale and forlorn, with what seemed to be a bit more than tiredness showing. My brown eyes, stared back at me, judging, but also, if I looked close enough, a tint of sadness and loss could be seen.

I growled and rubbed a hand roughly over my face, as if to distort my features and then have them bounce back so they looked exactly the way I wanted them to. I didn't look in the mirror after that. Instead I pulled on some clothes that Mum had cleverly placed in a basket just in case I forgot to bring some fresh ones in with me one day. Mum. A pang stabbed me in the heart but I refused to let it get to me.

I walked out, feeling better than I did when I walked in. I saw Nudge and Angel, sitting in the same spot as they were. The only sound could be heard was from Nudge, typing away occasionally on her laptop, trying to find something that I seriously doubt could help. Angel had her eyes closed and I could see her chest rising and falling in rhythmic patterns._ Inhale . . . Exhale_.

I found myself timing my breathing to match hers and it helped. It soothed me. Made me more aware to my surroundings.

Nudge looked up, obviously sensing my presence. "Hi," she smiled before looking down again and doing something with the mouse.

"Hey." I smiled back and crashed down on the bed next to her, making the bed bounce and groan. Hmm, if everything was back to normal, or none of this happened, I would have told myself that I needed to lose weight. "Found anything yet?"

Nudge nodded and clicked something. I watched the screen, as a window appeared and **Jebediah Batchelor. The Truth Files **heading immediately brought my attention.

"How does this help?" I asked, confused. I quickly scanned everything, not taking everything in.

"Shhh! Read all of it. Now!" Nudge pointed to it determinately.

I sighed. "You know tht I don't like reading Nudge."

"I know but just try!" she pleaded.

"Fine."

**Hope you like it! R&R! xx:)xx**


End file.
